Spirit of diplomacy resonates at Olympics
IOC president lauds warming of relations between two Koreas during closing ceremony of ‘peace games’
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics closed in a burst of fireworks and diplomacy, with hosts South Korea passing over the baton for 2022 to the next hosts, Beijing, and opening a new channel to Pyongyang.
Norway topped the medal table, with 39, including 14 golds. Germany followed with 31 followed by Canada in third place with 29. The United States came in fourth with only 23 medals, its lowest in 20 years.
The Games were held in the Pyeongchang area on South Korea’s west coast, just 80 km from the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas. South Korean President Moon Jae-in touting these Olympics as the “peace games,” used the event to extend an olive branch to North Korea. And, surprising many, North Korea took it.
Kim Jong Un’s regime in Pyong-
yang sent high-level official delegations to both the opening and closing ceremonies and had 22 athletes competing in events including skating
and alpine skiing. It also sent a huge cheering squad and an orchestra.
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, lauded the cooperation between the Koreas.
“With your joint march, you have shared your faith in a peaceful future for all of us,” he said at the closing ceremonies, referring to the way athletes from the two Koreas walked into the opening and closing ceremonies together. “Sport brings people together in a very fragile world.”
The U.S. was represented at the closing by Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser. She was travelling with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. James E. Risch, R-Idaho.
Ivanka Trump watched curling and big air skiing Saturday, then met U.S. athletes before the closing ceremony on Sunday.
Lauren Gibbs, who won silver in women’s bobsled, offered to let Trump try on her medal. “That is so cool,” Trump added as she raised the medal with one hand and draped her other arm around Gibbs.
Trump sat in the VIP box for the ceremony, in the row in front of Kim Yong Chol, the head of the North Korean delegation and an official who is sanctioned by the U.S. for his involvement in North Korea’s nuclear program. The two didn’t appear to interact with each other at all, just as Vice President Mike Pence did not acknowledge leader Kim Jong Un’s sister at the opening. But they did look toward each other as Moon arrived in the box.
As the ceremonies began, Moon’s office announced that, during hourlong talks before the closing, Kim Yong Chol had expressed a “willingness” for North Korea to talk to the Americans.
The statement did not make any mention of North Korea’s nuclear program or whether the dialogue would be about denuclearization. But still, this is the first sign of willingness from North Korea in years, and it comes when the Trump administration has been signalling an openness to talk without preconditions.