The presidential office on Friday spurned the possibility that the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics could be cohosted with North Korea, clarifying Seoul’s stance on the issue.

“As far as I know, there is no change in the government’s position that the Winter Games should not be shared,” presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters.

His remarks came as ranking officials expressed mixed views over cohosting, despite clear opposition from the organizing committee.

On Monday, Choi Moon-soon, governor of Gangwon Province, where the host city is located, said that PyeongChang, an alpine city within the province, could consider sharing the Winter Olympics with North Korea.

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said Thursday that anything is possible, depending on how inter-Korean relations unfold.

Ryoo’s ministry later said his remark was not intended to mean inter-Korean cohosting is possible. No co-hosting plan is under government consideration, it said.

The possibility of cohosting was first raised when the International Olympics Committee in December approved a set of recommendations for its Olympic 2020 Agenda, which included a cost-saving option for an Olympichost city to cohost the games with foreign cities.

The move raised the possibility of cohosting the PyeongChang Olympics with the Japanese city of Nagano, the host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, while local civic groups proposed cohosting with North Korea.

PyeongChang won the bid to host the 2018 Olympics in 2011, beating Munich and Annecy, France, in an IOC vote, after losing its two previous bids. (Yonhap)