No joint Korean march at today’s Paralympic opening

THE two Koreas will not march together at today’s Winter Paralympics opening ceremony, as they did at the Olympics, due to a disagreement about whether to include islands disputed with Japan on a united flag, officials said yesterday.

Athletes from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and South Korea marched together at the opening of last month’s Winter Olympics under a neutral “unification flag,” part of an intense rapprochement that also saw the DPRK send hundreds of cheerleaders and leader Kim Jong Un’s sister to the ceremony.

Seoul responded by sending President Moon Jae-in’s special envoys to Pyongyang, where leader Kim told them he was willing to discuss denuclearization with the United States.

South Korea has since announced plans to hold a historic summit between the DPRK leader and Moon.

The DPRK is sending two cross-country skiers to the Winter Paralympics, the first time it has ever sent athletes to the event, and South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said athletes from both countries had initially agreed to march together at the opening ceremony.

But after lengthy negotiations between both countries yesterday, the Korea Paralympic Committee said there would be no joint march as the DPRK “cannot accept the fact that it is not allowed to display Dokdo in the unification flag during the Games.”

Dokdo is the name given by South Korea to Seoul-controlled islands in the Sea of Japan, which are also claimed by Japan.

Ahead of last month’s Winter Olympics, Japan was angered after an unification flag, which depicts a pale blue silhouette of the peninsula, used at a practice of the Koreas’ combined women’s ice hockey team showed a blue dot indicating the islands. Seoul agreed to stop using that version of the flag after Tokyo protested.

The KPC said that the International Paralympic Committee had told them it was impossible to change the flag as it has a “strong partnership” with the International Olympic Committee.

“The IPC said it did not want any more controversy over this, so decided to honor each side’s opinion by letting the two countries march separately,” the KPC said.

The committee added the two Koreas had also held talks without the IPC but had not managed to reach agreement.