By Chung Min-uck

The ruling and opposition parties agreed Friday to seek measures to form a united team representing South and North Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

The agreement came during a meeting of floor leaders convened to discuss follow-up measures after PyeongChang's successful bidding for the Games.

Floor leader Rep. Hwang Woo-yea of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) and his opposition Democratic Party (DP) counterpart Rep. Kim Jin-pyo also agreed to pass legislation concerning PyeongChang's hosting of the Games through a special session of the National Assembly slated for August.

GNP spokeswoman Rep. Lee Doo-ah said, "We will pass it at the earliest possible date since a related budget should be reflected from next year."

The envisioned law will likely contain special benefits for the Olympic city equivalent to those for free economic zones.

The two parties also agreed on the need to form an ad-hoc committee do discuss measures toward that end, including the setup of infrastructure facilities and budget allocation.

But they failed to concur on a proposal made by the opposition party regarding inter-Korean parliamentary talks in time for the successful hosting of the Winter Games.

In the meantime, the opposition party is seeking to link the successful bidding of PyeongChang for hosting the 2018 Winter Games to speeding up the resumption of the stalled Mr. Geumgang tourism project.

DP floor leader Kim Jin-pyo said the upcoming PyeongChang Olympics can succeed only when the event is linked to the tours to Mt. Geumgang.

"It's already been three years since the suspension of the Mt. Geumgang tours," said Kim. "The tour project should be resumed for the success of the PyeongChang Olympics,"Kim said during the party's supreme council meeting Friday morning.

"The Winter Games will draw huge numbers of tourists from around the world and we can expect synergy effects only when the games are tied to tour packages to the northern mountain," he said.

The tourism project started in November 1998 under a contract between Hyundai Asan and North Korea. But it was suspended in the wake of military clashes in the West Sea and the shooting of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean guard.

DP leader Sohn Hak-kyu stressed that the PyeongChang Olympics should provide the basis for the elevation of inter-Korean cooperation, exchanges and eventual reunification.

Supreme Council member Rep. Lee In-young went further to call for the joint hosting of the Winter Olympic Games, demanding the government propose the idea to North Korea.

The opposition party's linking the Winter Olympics to the relationship between the two Koreas comes as a move against the government and ruling GNP's firm stance against North Korea.

Since the beginning of President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration, the ruling camp has been sticking to its hard-line policy against the North and even getting more hawkish after two brutal provocations by the North.

The government has been restricting inter-Korean projects following the Cheonan Navy ship incident last March. And six months later, the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island, prompting the government to press ahead with its policy.

On Thursday, DP lawmakers had a meeting at Alpensia Resort in Gangwon Province near where the 2018 Winter Games are to be held during which Kim initiated the need to link PyeongChang to the promotion of inter-Korean relations.

"The Winter Olympics can succeed only if it relates itself to peace and unification,"said Kim at the meeting.