Ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the North and South Korea reached an agreement to march under a single ”unified Korea”.
In a what seems like a truce in the village of Panmunjom, both nations will be fielding a joint ice hockey team.
High-level talks between the two Koreas resumed after more than 2 years ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Should things go according to plan, some 230 cheerleaders, 140 orchestral musicians and 30 taekwondo athletes could walk across the land border to participate in the Winter Games representing the North Korean delegation.
For the Paralympics, scheduled in March, the North has agreed to send a 150-man delegation to take part.
Concerned South Koreans have voiced their dissatisfaction with the United hockey team. Worrying it could blow their chances of winning a medal even though playing on home soil. An online petition has already garnered thousands of signatories urging President Moon Jae-in to rescind the decision.
The initiative will have to be given the green light by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at an upcoming meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The North has failed to meet registration deadlines.
Due to prospects of violating UN Security Council sanctions, South Korea will work out loopholes of hosting their Northern neighbours without raising the alarm bells. Cash transfers to Pyongyang have been restricted and certain officials from Pyongyang have also been blacklisted.
Not moved by the recent rapprochement, Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono says the world shouldn’t be deceived by Pyongyang’s ”charm of offensive”.
Motivated by the need for inter-Korean relations, President Moon assured South Korean athletes that North’s participation could help accomplish that.
The liberal president told state broadcaster that these recent developments could pave the way to dialogue between the North and the United States to address the nuclear issue.
Ministers from South Korea, the US and Japan have sidelines talks, agreed to continue with the pressure on the North to denuclearize while at the same time offering their support of bilateral discussions.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
