The International Olympic Committee will facilitate the participation of North Korean athletes in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as it did at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, IOC President Thomas Bach said Friday.

"We will take the same approach in every respect with regard to Tokyo 2020 as we took with Pyeongchang 2018...We have always applied strict political neutrality, and then the same we will do for Tokyo 2020," Bach said in an interview with Kyodo News in Pyeongchang.

"We hope that we can continue to assist athletes from DPRK to prepare and then qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo," Bach said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Bach also reiterated that he is planning to make a trip to the North at the invitation of the country's National Olympic Committee, at a "mutually convenient date."

"Since (the invitation) had been welcomed by all the delegations, we are now looking for a mutually convenient date. Then we will see whether we find one and when we find it," he said.

"It will not be during the (Pyeongchang) Games, this I can say."

North Korea decided to take part in the Winter Olympics that started Feb. 9 despite tensions remaining over its nuclear weapon and missile development ambitions. The country is under tightened U.N. Security Council sanctions aimed at cutting its sources of funding for the programs.

The two Koreas, which are technically still at war, marched together under a unified flag at the opening ceremony and formed a women's ice hockey team for the first Winter Games to be held in South Korea. It is the first time a unified Korean team has competed at an Olympics.

While noting that the U.N. sanctions should be respected, Bach said, "The joint march of the two Korea teams sends a very strong message of the Olympic values to the world there. I think everybody could see what the Olympic Games are about, bringing people together to understand each other and then respect each other and have peace."

When asked whether a similar joint opening ceremony march or unified Korean team would be a feature at the Tokyo Olympics, Bach said, "This is way too early. Let's finish Pyeongchang 2018 and then see how the dialogue is going."

Regarding Sapporo's potential bid to host the 2026 Winter Games, Bach said the capital of Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, which has announced it is joining the race, is "in a very good position."

Some observers are pessimistic about Sapporo's chances, given it would be the third consecutive Winter Olympics held in Asia. After Pyeongchang, the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing, China.

Sapporo, which hosted the 1972 Winter Games, will likely have to fight it out with the Swedish capital Stockholm, Calgary in Canada and Sion in Switzerland. Other cities have until the end of March to officially express interest before the host is decided in 2019.

If "we see an obstacle which we think is very difficult to overcome for one of these cities then we tell them," Bach said. "Sapporo is very much welcome (to bid) because it is a traditional winter sports place, it has the facilities, therefore is in a very good position to become a candidate."

Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where organizers are under pressure from the IOC to cut costs, Bach said, "Despite the high cost level in Japan...we are confident that we will have a balanced budget in the end."

"The revenues are much, much, much higher than expected in particular with sponsorship," Bach said, adding that ticket and merchandising revenue is also "promising to be higher than budgeted."


More on North Korea and the Olympics:

Olympics: IOC chief to visit N. Korea after Pyeongchang: report

North Korean art troupe returns home after Olympic visit to South Korea

North Korean leader's sister arrives in South Korea on Olympics delegation