Winter Olympics

Ah . . . what a glorious move towards peaceful reunification of North and South Korea. Nothing could be more optimistic than the prospect of the great reunification of the two countries under the banner of good, clean Olympic endeavour. Suddenly, Pyeong-Chang is to become the city of doves and the greatest thrust towards peace the Korean Peninsula has seen in decades. A little strange that North Korea would herald such a move towards peace and humanity with a strong display of military might, but then again, perhaps that is how even peaceful diplomacy is conducted over there. In the midst of such ambience, I would be the last correspondent to ask inflammatory questions, such as, how many thousands of North Koreans will cross into South Korea to support their sportspeople? Would those supporters be prepared to die for the cause of infiltrating the south to claim weapons from clandestine arms caches and North Korean ‘‘sleeper’’ fifth columnists? It is one thing to put up heavily armed borders to stop insurgents at those borders, and quite another to quell instant terrorism and fanaticism springing up behind the ‘‘big guns’’. Still let us not take the cynical view . . . let us wish the two estranged countries and the Winter Olympics, the very best results from this long overdue move towards peace and reunification.

Dennis Pennefather

Te Awamutu