Games open with historic handshake
South Korea’s Moon greets Kim’s sister
PYEONGCHANG: The Winter Olympics sparked to life in a vivid, colourful ceremony of fire and ice in South Korea on Friday, and the diplomacy was just as choreographed in the stadium where leaders from nations that are sworn enemies sat close together.
South Korea, which is using the Pyeongchang Games to break the ice with North Korea, seated its president alongside U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, with two of the North’s most senior officials sitting in the row behind.
President Moon Jae-in, who wants to harness the Olympic spirit to pave the way for talks over the North’s nuclear and missile programme, shook hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister as well as the North’s nominal head of state.
Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong-un, is among a 500-strong North Korean delegation visiting the South following an abrupt thaw in relations between the rival Korea’s in the run-up to the Games.
The delegation is led by the North Korean ceremonial head of state Kim Yongnam, the highest ranked Northern official ever to visit the South. He also shook hands after arriving with Mr Moon, marking a high point for the rapprochement ahead of the Games dubbed the “peace Olympics” by the South.
For her part, Yo-jong is the first member of the ruling Kim family to visit the South since her grandfather Kim Il-sung, after his forces invaded in 1950 to launch the Korean War.
Underlining the complexities of the peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula, just a day before the ceremony the North Koreans issued a timely reminder that peace diplomacy is backed by military might.
On Thursday, fireworks lit up the sky and goose-stepping soldiers and ballistic missiles paraded through the North Korea capital to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the country’s armed forces.
The South is still technically at war with the North after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, and the United States and the North have recently swapped nuclear threats.
Underlining Moon’s efforts to re-engage with the North, the opening ceremony followed the story line of children wandering through a mythical, snowy landscape and discovering a world where people live in peace and harmony.
The Olympics have provided some respite from years of tense relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, though just hours before the ceremony hundreds of antiNorth Korean protesters scuffled with riot police outside the stadium, burning North Korean flags and pictures of its leader, Kim Jong-un.
South Korea’s frigid February, where temperatures have plummeted to minus 20 degrees Celsius night, has come as a shock to the system for athletes and visitors alike in the leadup to these Games, prompting concerns about hypothermia at the opening ceremony.
The weather was a little milder than forecast on Friday, but spectators still huddled near heaters, holding hot packs and slurping down steaming fishcake soup to ward off the chills.
Bundled up in a scarf, mask and knitted hat, with hot packs tucked into her knee blanket, office worker Shin Hye-sook said she and her three colleagues were coping with the cold.
“It’s okay unless the wind blows,” said the 60-year-old. “We’re sitting as close as we can and trying not to move a lot to save our energy.”