We've seen this movie before: it was a table tennis match that opened the doors of the People's Republic of China to the United States, in ’71. Kissinger, in your book “On China”/”About to China”, recalled that one day in April 1971, the young American athletes who participated in the table tennis team, met before Chinese Chancellor Zhou Enlai, in the Grand Palace of the People, and they heard the phrase: “you opened a new chapter in the relations between the Chinese and North American peoples”. It was the beginning of everything…
Would History be teaching us the same lesson today with the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, in South Korea?
Let's get to the facts: President Moon Jae-in has a long commitment to bring rapprochement between the two Koreas; since the time he was a direct advisor to President Roo Moo hyun (2003/8), who fervently supported the rapprochement between the two neighbors, and was a great supporter of what was the boldest attempt at reconciliation between the two sister nations: a “Sunshine Policy”. Released in 1998, by its predecessor – is friend-, or President Kim Dae-jong, together with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, she lasted, to the “fits and starts”, up until 2008. For your “boldness”, Kim Dae-jung was there, by the way, rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2000.
Times have changed, and we reached the year of 2006, When, In a beautiful day – more precisely, at 1:30 am on the day 09 of October -, Kim Jong-il authorized North Korea's first nuclear test. Why? According to the German article “The mirror”, that moment: “…the logic of the regime in Pyongyang? Only the bomb can protect the country from the Americans, who have never before in history attacked a nuclear power…”
Another cycle of distancing between the Koreas began, and the story continued in an even more threatening way with Kim Jong-il's son and political heir, Kim Jong-un, as we have been following almost daily on the international news.
Elected President of South Korea last year, following the impeachment of its predecessor, Park Geun-hye, Moon found the possibility of rewriting the story between the two sisters. However, given the geopolitical and political reality currently in force in the region, he feels compelled, it seems, a “Light one candle for God and another for the Devil”. That is, although convinced of the viability of this rapprochement, he is a hostage, more than ever “umbrella” protector of the USA and rebellious moods in Washington. Like this, he wouldn't have, on first reading, the freedom to engage in a conciliation process without the “blessings” of the protector.
It will be???
Interests to all its powerful regional neighbors, especially to “godmother” China a composition that avoids the worst. As Ukraine is unable to maintain its productive and logistical system, also, around with the “Syrian issue”, on its southern flank, would not have (?) “breath” to simultaneously deal with the clashes to its east. Like this, would be the first two to “to bless” the tension that is emerging in the region; the Japanese, also, closest targets of an exercise – or even attack – nuclear. It's the world, generally, of course.
The North Koreans have already given an eloquent positive signal: none other than Kim Yo-jong will lead Pyongyang's official delegation, favorite sister – and main advisor – the Kim Jong Un. And teams from both countries will work together! Her expected meeting with President Mon is already considered historic by analysts. As it was known, she must deliver a letter from her brother to the host, which according to some, would signal your intention to get closer to your neighbor. When it comes to who it is, a lot of caution is always necessary, of course. Everything is possible. But there is also room for hope. So much so that the Japanese government announced that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend the inauguration ceremony!!! Sign of the times…
Blessed sport…
And the question that doesn't want to be silenced: and now, D.T.?
The matter of “The Guardian” takes care of all this:
Winter Olympics bring peace to Korean peninsula – for now
Pyeongchang’s underground evacuation centres symbolise fears for the worst, but Kim Jong-un has cooled his rhetoric
Dotted among the ski slopes, ice rinks and bobsled tracks of the Winter Olympic venues in Pyeongchang are huge underground evacuation centres. The exact locations are a secret, but they symbolise the fear felt by South Korean officials as they worked on the site of the Games, just 50 miles (80km) from the North Korean border.
Since the turn of the year, however, there has been an extraordinary rapprochement between the North and South. This week, a cruise ship carrying North Korean musicians, singers and dancers docked in South Korea, part of a 500-strong delegation sent by Pyongyang for the Games, which start on 9 February.
The performers follow officials and athletes who have already crossed the most militarised border in the world. The delegation attending the opening ceremony includes Kim Yong-nam, a 90-year-old political veteran and speaker of the North’s parliament, who is the highest-ranking official to visit the South since 2014.
A surprise announcement during North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address set the stage for a significant cooling of tensions, and now the focus has shifted from potential doom to maintaining the first signs of dialogue in years.
“North Korea is trying to break out of the increasing international hostility they face, the isolation and the sanctions. The Olympics is a chance to present a different face to the world,” says James Hoare, a former British diplomat who previously served as the UK representative in Pyongyang.
“There’s also an element where they want to try to drive a wedge between the Americans and the South Koreans, and they saw an opportunity to accomplish that with [South Korean president] Moon Jae-in.”
Donald Trump has been noncommittal on continuing to support dialogue after the Games, and last month reportedly rejected a candidate for US ambassador to South Korea over his refusal to support military strikes against Pyongyang.
Mike Pence, the vice-president, will lead a US delegation, and the White House has said his presence is aimed at diminishing the propaganda value for the North.
“Moon hopes he can turn the inter-Korea talks he’s establishing with the Olympics into direct talks between North Korea and the United States,” says Jo Dong-joon, a politics professor at Seoul National University. “But there’s little hope of long-term progress, since there is so little common ground between the US and North Korea.”
“Unfortunately, once the Paralympics is over, military exercises in South Korea with the US will resume, and we’ll likely go back to the old cycle of tensions rising and falling.”
The Paralympics end on 18 March and the first series of joint combat exercises scheduled for this year will reportedly begin in late April.
South Korea’s openness to the North has also exposed officials to criticism at home, and Moon’s popularity has dropped to 67%, according to a Gallup Korea poll, his second-lowest ever. Younger South Koreans dismiss North Korean athletes as having been born with a nuclear spoon in their mouth, securing preferential treatment due to Kim’s weapons programme.
Another common refrain, typically heard among the older generation, is that hatred of the Kim regime should not extend to the athletes, who are themselves trapped.
“Many people in South Korea, especially the younger generation, are angry that North Korean athletes get to join at the last minute and see it as very unfair,” says Youngmi Kim, an expert on Korean politics at the University of Edinburgh. “The South’s government knows they can’t change the North Korean regime, but with a policy of engagement, they hope they can at least open the eyes of a few in the North to the wider world.”
A particularly thorny issue has been women’s ice hockey, where the North and South will field a combined team at the expense of some South Korean athletes who had to give up their spots.
The team has also exposed a few fundamental differences between the two peoples, who have been divided for over 70 years. Players from the North and South use different words for terms like “pass” and “shoot”, Kim says, with South Koreans using English terms and North Koreans deploying pure Korean words.
And while the North’s participation in the Games has soothed most fears over security, it has also created new ones. When North Korean officials arrived in Seoul last month, far-right protesters burned images of Kim Jong-un and some fear South Korean extremists may try to attack North Korean athletes or performers.
As many as 60,000 security personnel and soldiers will be out in force each day during the Games, twice as many as in Rio de Janeiro, a far more dangerous city when it comes to violent crime.
North Korean agents bombed a Korean Air flight, killing all 115 people on board, before the last Olympics in Seoul in 1988 in an effort to scare international teams. But 30 years later, the North’s participation means there is little chance of outright aggression.
“If the North Koreans did anything against the Games themselves, it would be seen as an attack on the international community, and would hurt their relations with China and Russia, which have been very supportive of late,” says Euan Graham, director of the international security programme at the Lowy Institute in Australia.
“They could provoke in other ways: the North Koreans could probably get away with a satellite test launch, maybe a ballistic missile test, but I don’t think they would go further than that.
“The North has a huge propaganda opportunity here – any provocations would ultimately be raining on their own parade,” he said.
Original: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/07/winter-olympics-bring-peace-to-korean-peninsula-for-now
