A South Korean lawmaker said Friday that North Korea reportedly turned down a South Korean offer to organize a joint cheering squad for the South Korean football team during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

An executive chairman of the South Korean delegation to the North, Moon Sung-soon, said his North Korean counterpart was silent regarding the suggestion by South Korean lawmakers to field a joint support squad in Germany.

He made the remarks in a press conference after he returned from a five-day trip to North Korea.

Moon is the executive chairman of a young people's committee marking the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. He and Rep. Lee Hwa-young of the ruling Uri Party led a 100-member joint delegation from the ruling and opposition parties on a visit to Pyongyang from Monday.

Moon said that North Korean officials responded negatively to the South's proposal for the joint cheering squad. The North failed to advance to the World Cup in the preliminaries last year.

Meanwhile, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the Kimilsung Socialist Youth League and the South Korean delegation adopted a joint statement after a meeting in Pyongyang, agreeing to increase exchange and cooperation in various fields.