Overview
- The International Olympic Committee said Chang died Sunday at age 87 and confirmed his passing on Wednesday.
- The IOC will fly the Olympic flag at half-mast for three days at Olympic House in Lausanne in his honor.
- South Korea’s culture and unification ministers sent condolence messages that will be delivered to North Korea through the IOC.
- The IOC did not provide a cause of death, and North Korea’s state news agency KCNA had not reported his death.
- As North Korea’s sole IOC member since 1996, Chang helped broker a unified table tennis team in 1991 and joint Olympic marches in 2000 and 2018, illustrating how sports exchanges have offered a rare path for inter-Korean contact.