Sports bring out the best in people. Enemies have buried their hatchets and history has been made many times at sporting arenas. It’s all thanks to the thing called, ‘sporting spirit’. This time around the world got a glimpse of it at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Many call it a diplomatic coup but, millions watching the spectacle saw it as a ray of hope in a world sitting perpetually at the precipice of war and Nuclear holocaust threat.
The two Koreas marched together under the same flag after more than 10 years. The last time a unified Koeran team marched together was in 2007. It was a moment that made peace look attainable.
The spectacle was attended by a North Korean delegation consisting of Kim Jong Un’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong. She attended the opening ceremony along with North Korea’s nominal head of state, 90-year-old Kim Yong Nam. The South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife greeted the delegation with smiles and a handshake.
This is the first-ever visit by a member of the ruling Kim family ever since the Korean War ended in 1953.
Yong-nam is the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea and its ceremonial leader.
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in later met the 22-member North Korean delegation along with the state dignitaries at the South Korean presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House). The Moon later hosted a lunch in the honor of his North Korean guests.
The US delegation headed by Vice President, Mike Pence, it is reported, did not greet the South Korean delegation though they were seated in close proximity.
North Korea has been under the scanner by its neighboring countries as well as the US Administration for several Nuclear tests it undertook last year. The US President Donald Trump and the South Korean administration have been exchanging borderline-threatening communication on Twitter and in person all of last year.
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After months of tension and a looming threat of Nuclear face-off, the athletes from the two countries marched under the same flag in the opening ceremony parade.
Earlier, the two sides had met at the border village of Panmunjom, located along the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) for high-level, working-level and military talks respectively.
Today’s meeting also included two more high-level delegates, Choe Hwi, the chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee and Ri Son-gwon, the head of the North Korea’s state agency in charge of inter-Korean affairs.
The North Korean delegation’s visit to South Korea was the first trip since August 2009, when a high-level North Korean delegation attended the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first-ever inter-Korean summit with then North Korean leader late Kim Jong-il in 2000.
The two-hour long opening ceremony of the first Winter Olympics in South Korea was held under the slogan, “Passion, Connected”.
The grand event which will be on till February 25 will see 2,920 athletes competing for 92 nations with a record 102 gold medals at stake.
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North Korea has sent a delegation of 22 athletes to compete in five disciplines. The unified women’s ice hockey team will be representing both the countries.
However, North Korea has sent its own cheerleader squad and an art troupe who are scheduled to perform in the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
The Pyeongchang Olympics are the second-ever to be held on the Korean Peninsula, and its first Winter Games.
Seoul last hosted the 1988 Olympics.
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