FILE - Then North Korea's International Olympic Committee, IOC, member Chang Ung, middle row left, waves with officials of International Taekwondo Federation for the media upon their arrival at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, on June 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - Then North Korea's IOC representative Chang Ung arrives after a flight from Pyongyang at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing on Jan. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Then North Korea's IOC representative Chang Ung, left, arrives after a flight from Pyongyang at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, on Jan. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Then North Korea's International Olympic Committee, IOC, member Chang Ung, middle row left, waves with officials of International Taekwondo Federation for the media upon their arrival at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, on June 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Chang Ung, a former North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee who once led sports exchanges with rival South Korea including joint marches of their athletes at the Olympics, has died, the IOC announced Wednesday. He was 87.
said on its website that it had learned with “extreme sadness†of Chang’s death on Sunday. It said the Olympic flag will be flown at half-mast for three days at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland in a show of respect.
The IOC statement didn't describe the cause of Chang's death. North Korea’s state media has not reported on his death.
Born in 1938, Chang was originally a basketball player who captained the North Korean national team. After retiring from the sport, he became an athletics administrator, serving as a vice sports minister, a vice chairman of North Korea’s national Olympic Committee and a vice president of the Olympic Council of Asia.
In 1996, Chang was elected to the IOC. As North Korea’s only-ever IOC member, he represented his country on international sports fields and headed numerous — if often rocky — talks with South Korea to promote sports exchange and cooperation programs between the rivals.
The most notable results of this diplomacy came at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when athletes of the two Koreas marched together under a “unification flag†depicting their peninsula during the opening and closing ceremonies, the first joint parade since their division in 1945.
Athletes of the Koreas walked together at following Olympic Games and major international sports events, including the in South Korea. After watching a joint march in Pyeongchang’s opening ceremony, Chang told reporters that he was “deeply moved."
Chang played a key role in earlier talks with South Korea, which led to the two countries sending their first unified male and female teams to the 1991 world table tennis championships in Chiba, Japan. In Pyeongchang, the two Koreas fielded their for women’s ice hockey.
But between North and South Korea have suffered as political relations frayed.
There have been no sports and any other exchanges programs between the countries for years. North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the U.S. since its leader Kim Jong Un’s broader with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. He's also branded South Korea a permanent enemy and rejected the idea of future unification.
The IOC said Chang’s contributions helped advance sports participation, cultural exchanges and the role of sport in society.
“His efforts to promote cooperation on the Korean Peninsula demonstrated the power of sport to build bridges and inspire hope,†IOC President Kirsty Coventry said.
The IOC said Chang served on several commissions including Sport for All and International Olympic Truce Foundation.
North Korea’s official news agency, KCNA, last mentioned Chang in 2023, when he was awarded the Olympic Order, an award given to those who have made extraordinary contributions to the Olympics, during an IOC session in Mumbai, India. Chang, then an honorary IOC member, joined the ceremony by video.
The Associated Press
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