Korean Olympic deal angers some
Conservatives in South dismayed by joint flag
SEOUL, South Korea — When athletes from the rival Koreas paraded together behind a single flag for the first time at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, it was a highly emotional event that came on a wave of hope for reconciliation following their leaders’ first summit talks.
Eighteen years later, the Koreas are planning to do the same at next month’s Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea. But the plan hasn’t generated as much enthusiasm among South Koreans, with many conservatives asking why their athletes cannot carry their own national flag during the first Winter Olympics on their soil.
“We are turning the Pyeongchang Olympics that we’ve got into the Pyongyang Olympics,” said Hong Joon-pyo, leader of South Korea’s main conservative opposition party, referring to North Korea’s capital. “We are dancing to the tune of (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un’s disguised peace offensive.”
A day earlier, the two Koreas reached a package of Olympics-related rapprochement deals, including marching together at the opening ceremony and fielding their first joint Olympic team, in women’s ice hockey.
Public surveys show most South Koreans support the North’s participation in the Olympics, a chance to create a tentative thaw in the Koreas’ long-strained relations. But a poll released Thursday suggests that half of South Koreans oppose a joint flag.
The survey by the private polling group Realmeter indicates how much South Koreans’ view of their northern neighbor has changed because of its expanding nuclear and missile programs since the two countries’ athletes marched together at sporting events during the era of detente in the 2000s.
At those events, North and South Korean athletes in the same uniforms entered stadiums behind a “unification flag,” a blue image of the Korean Peninsula on a white background, to the tune of the Korean traditional folk song “Arirang” instead of their individual national anthems. During their march at the Sydney Olympics they drew a standing ovation, with many spectators shedding tears and the applause continuing until the Koreans finished circling the track.