Koreas agree to march together
Olympic athletes will enter Opening Ceremonies under unified flag.
SEOUL, South Korea — In a rare gesture of unity after recent threats of “fire and fury,” North and South Korea agreed Wednesday to march together under a unified flag during the opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics.
The announcement also includes plans to organize a joint women’s ice hockey team, which if approved would be the first combined Korean team for the Olympics — a symbolic milestone that comes only days after a false ballistic missile scare sent shockwaves across Hawaii.
But analysts said it was too soon to say whether the Olympic accord amounted to a breakthrough — or just a breather.
The latest agreements, released in a statement late Wednesday after 12 hours of talks in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula, were among several public signs that the two sides plan to project unity before and during the Games, which begin Feb. 9.
North Korea will send a 230-member “cheering squad” to the Games, who will join supporters from South Korea to cheer athletes from both countries.
The two nations also plan to hold joint training and cultural events, though decisions about which North Korean athletes will compete will be left to the International Olympic Committee, which plans to meet with both sides Saturday.
The news of a small rapprochement stood in stark contrast to recent acrimonious outbursts between Pyongyang and Washington over North Korea’s rapidly progressing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
As the North has notched unprecedented advances, President Donald Trump has derided its leader, Kim Jong Un, as “Little Rocket Man,” and Kim called Trump a “dotard.” Trump threatened “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Trump, in an interview Wednesday with the Reuters news agency, said it was possible that tension with North Korea could be resolved peacefully, “but it’s very possible that it can’t.”
The president in the past has not ruled out direct talks with North Korea’s leader, but in the interview, he expressed doubts as to whether such a course would yield any success.
“I’d sit down, but I’m not sure that sitting down will solve the problem,” he said.
The recent North-South talks, though, had a narrower focus.
Efforts by South Korea to include the North in the Games progressed rapidly after conciliatory comments made by Kim during his annual New Year’s Day speech.
Kim’s words prompted the South, which sensed the chance to use the Olympics as a catalyst, to suggest talks.
The two nations have since agreed upon the North’s participation in the Games, its first since 2010, and have also agreed to allow the isolated nation to bring a large musical troupe south for performances.