False Dream of Unification at The Olympics

At this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, North and South Korea marched under one unified flag and merged their women’s hockey teams. Many in the United States interpreted the move as a sign of peace, a positive indication towards an amiable and possibly unified peninsula in the future.

Embodying this sentiment, Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, attended the Olympics and showed very welcoming gestures to South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-In. Yo Jong even extended an invitation to Jae-In to visit to her home country. This remark was unexpected and significant since South Korea and North Korea have not held a summit since 2007 during the Bush administration.

However, back in South Korea, citizens doubt that these public peace symbols will have any further benefits. Korean news outlets and the online comments of citizens expressed that the Olympics were merely being used by North Korea as a publicity stunt to restore their image on the international stage, humanizing the administration amidst rising tensions between the US and North Korea.

The polite, friendly woman who was sent to represent North Korea was the polar opposite of what embodies America’s and the world’s perception of the country. The international community has labeled North Korea as the horrific, failing epitome of a communist regime. American media has compared Yo Jong to Ivanka Trump, who contrasts her father and supposedly sheds a positive light on the North Korean government otherwise despised by many.

Despite the peninsula’s publicly-displayed desire for unity and peace, the empty symbols will amount to nothing unless real diplomatic actions are taken. The move of combining Olympic teams had very low stakes for both the North and the South; the women’s hockey team in both countries was never the most competitive, and the unification flag created an illusion of world peace, an ideal that is very suitable for the international spectacle comprising the opening ceremony.

Specifically, North Korea solely reaped benefits from this year’s Olympics; they restored their image on the world stage, being publicized for something other than raging threats against Trump. South Korea did not gain anything substantial, although they have not been damaged either; some have expressed that the country was merely used by the North.

North and South Korean summits have largely been focused around the prerequisite that North Korea should give up their nuclear weapons. But currently, only abstract, distant ideals of unification float around as neither country offers for a genuine negotiation.

For now, Jae-In has publicly shut down the possibility of a summit meeting any time soon, which is inherently impractical. This raises the question of what South Korea’s intentions were in welcoming Yo Jong, marching under one flag and unifying hockey teams. If the President knew the actions were not going to lead to a summit, it is entirely unclear what he expected the South to gain out of such an affair.

Nevertheless, the whole affair was an opportunity for either side to reach out and truly continue meetings—not necessarily seeking unification, but at least peace in the community since tensions have been particularly high. Instead, South Korea was unable to see nor chose not to pursue the further opportunities granted by this entire event, and the North left the situation with a magnified sense of respect and even affection from the global audience. It will likely take years for another chance for a summit to arise. Tensions within the peninsula, as well as with the US, may erupt before then. The best option now is for the US to quit hurling useless threats at the North and for South Korea to put the inter-Korean relationship on hold and seek another summit more actively only if tensions continue to hike.