The Olympic Games are an event unlike any other in that they are able to unite countries from all corners of the globe. For a few weeks, rival nations place their political agendas on hold and gather to watch the world’s most talented athletes compete for the gold. While the Olympics have always been a time to celebrate togetherness through sport and to showcase the years of preparation the athletes have dedicated to their respective sport, the Games have a history of political undertones. Pyeongchang, South Korea is no exception. After months of nuclear standoff, the United States and North Korea have seized the spotlight as the host nation sets a tone of peace.
From Feb. 9 through Feb. 25, the winter games in South Korea will dominate the world stage as athletes compete in 102 events after four long years of intense training. This year’s Games, much like their predecessors, have a political undertone featuring South Korea’s hostile neighbor to the north. For the first time in eight years, North Korea is participating in the winter games. Following the first meeting between the neighbors in several years, the North and South will make history, competing with a joint women’s hockey team.
Following the last several months of increasing tension between North Korea and the United States, a South Korean ally, the Koreas marched together under a unified flag at the opening ceremony. While they have never completed together, this is not the first time they have marched together, the last time dating back to 2006, in Turin, Italy.
Participation in the Olympic Games, however, are not the only actions of peace between the North and South. The direct phone line between North and South Korea has been reopened, replacing the megaphone the South had been using for the past several years. The United States and South Korea have also postponed their annual drills preparing for a North Korean invasion. History is being made in Pyeongchang these Olympic Games, but the decade strong conflict between these nations will not be resolved overnight.
“There’s always hope,” Jenny Town, the assistant director of the U.S.-Korean Institute as John Hopkins University said. “But it’s not an easy road ahead.”
Furthering the already groundbreaking events happening on the Korean peninsula, Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, became the first person from the ruling family to cross the notorious border into South Korea since 1953. On Friday Feb. 9, 2018, Jong, North Korea’s deputy director of the Worker’s Party Propaganda and Agitation Department, attended the opening ceremony on what has become known as her “charm campaign.” The 30-year-old captured all eyes, successfully charming the world on the biggest stage.
Capturing the headlines back home was Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to shake Jong’s hand at the opening ceremony. The dialogue between the two countries has remained tense after President Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, have continued to stare each other down, flirting with the idea of nuclear war. The Asia-Pacific editor at BBC, Mikael Bristow commented on the images portrayed by both Jong and Pence.
“It’s an odd situation where you have a country, North Korea, that’s been developing nuke weapons in contravention of UN sanctions appearing quite well,” he said. “And a country like America, which has been the staunch ally of South Korea, coming across as quite badly.”
The United Nation Security Council has also placed strict sanctions on North Korea in effort to cripple the economy of the world’s poorest country and bring them to the negotiating table.
Regardless of the United State’s weary eye, the peace achieved at these games is symbolic, especially considering their close proximity to the demilitarized zone separating the two halves of the Korean peninsula. South Korean president Moon Jae-in has been seeking this symbolic peace and the negotiations that could follow.
“Many considered it an impossible dream to have an Olympics of peace in which North Korea would participate,” he told the international Olympic committee. “And the two Koreas would form a joint team.”
The South Korean president’s desire to lesson the tensions with its northern neighbor was echoed in the opening ceremony, not only with the presence of one of North Korea’s top officials, but by the theme of the ceremony itself. With North Korea visible from the top of the slopes the athletes compete on, South Korean actor and theatrical creator Song Seung-whan – the man behind the opening ceremony magic – has this theme in mind.
“As a starting point, Korea is the only divided country in the world,” he said. “We started with peace in mind.”
Regardless to whether this is the beginning of improved relations on the Korean peninsula, or simply a play to further alienate the United States, the political drama in Pyeongchang has made these Olympics about more than the gold, as this time, the dialogue hits close to home. South Korea’s tone of peace, no matter how temporary, remains in line with the Olympic tradition.
