A citizen briefing session on the bid held recently attracted around 200 city councillors, public officials, civic groups, sports officials and local residents, sportbusiness.com reports.

The two cities originally launched a joint bid for the Games in November 2021, marking the occasion with a ceremony.

In October last year, however, the two cities were urged to gauge the opinions of citizens over their joint bid and were criticised for a lack of public dialogue.

A report jointly conducted by the Gwangju City Council and Daegu City Council claimed that a forum was held in August 2021 to brief the public on plans to host the Games in the two cities and hold discussions.

However, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the citizen briefing session did not take place on that occasion, with the Gwangju City Council instead issuing a motion to garner support based on the results of a survey.

Gwangju - which hosted the 2019 World Aquatics Championships - and Daegu – which hosted the 2011 World Athletics Championships - are located 180 kilometres apart but have a longstanding close relationship.

This bid is being viewed as a means to build further harmony between the east and west of the country.

The Yonhap news agency reported that the briefing session saw the Gwangju Jeonnam Research Institute report the results of an investigation into the joint bid, with the Korea Institute of Sports Policy and Science announcing the results of the preliminary feasibility study.

Results of public interest surveys were also disclosed, with 71.8 per cent of 400 Gwangju citizens said to be in favour of a bid, with a nationwide study of 1,000 households indicating backing of 60.2 per cent.

Gwangju City now plans to obtain approval from the city council to submit a plan for hosting an international event, before approaching the Korea Sports Council.

"If Daegu City receives consent from the council to jointly host the event, we plan to jointly prepare a plan for holding the event," a Gwangju City official said.

The 2038 Asian Games is the next available edition of the event after the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) awarded the Qatari capital of Doha and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia rights for the 2030 and 2034 Games respectively back in December 2020.

The most recent edition of the Games was held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia, in 2018, with the 2022 event due to take place in Hangzhou, China.

Last July, Hangzhou 2022 was re-scheduled to take place from September 23 to October 8 this year due to Covid-19 complications.

The 2026 Asian Games are scheduled to be held in the Japanese cities of Aichi and Nagoya.

South Korea has staged the Games three times before, most recently in 2014 when Incheon played host.

Busan hosted the 2002 edition, with capital city Seoul staging in 1986.