Put your worries away
Why a North Korean threat to Olympics seems unlikely Scott Stinson
It is fully part of the Olympic schedule. Right next to luge and Nordic combined, there is the Fear Over Security.
Except this year, it looks like that event might be over before the Games even get started.
Perhaps that’s because we had an early start with the hand-wringing this time around. The Wall Street Journal ran a story in August under the headline “South Korea Prepares for the World’s Most Dangerous Olympics.” Though the story itself wasn’t nearly so inflammatory, it came amid nuclear tensions exacerbated by North Korea’s little dictator and his equally unpredictable counterpart in the White House. In the weeks since, t here have been varying assessments of the danger posed by Kim Jong Un during Pyeongchang 2018. A French IOC official said her country was prepared to pull its team if tensions created a situation that was too dangerous, and a member of the Trump cabinet said in December it was an “open question” as to whether the United States would send a delegation. ( It was soon pointed out that Washington didn’t have the final say on that question.)
Canada, for its part, stuck to the same wait-and-see approach.
“The health and safety of our athletes is always the first priority,” said Chris Overholt, chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee, when tensions were particularly high a couple of months ago. “I don’t think Korea or Pyeongchang represents anything unique, candidly.”
He noted that Canadian athletes and officials have been travelling to and from the Korean peninsula for months and that Ottawa’s advisories on doing so have remained unchanged. “If something changes, we’ll address it at that time.”
Things have changed, but in a good way. The two Koreas agreed to march under a unified flag in the Olympic ceremonies and North Korea has sent a small delegation of athletes. There will also be a joint women’s hockey team, with members from each side of the DMZ. With the athletes from the North already arriving in the South, and North Korean flags flying in the Olympic village, the Games look like they could lessen tensions between Kim Jong- Un and the West, however briefly.
A South Korea student working as an Olympic volunteer spoke about seeing the North Koreans arrive as though she had spotted a unicorn.
“I thought only high-level officials in South Korea could see a North Korean in person, but I think I can see them here, so I’m excited,” she told The Associated Press.
Usually it takes until the Games are underway before everyone relaxes about security fears. At the last Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, the concerns were about that city’s rampant street crime. In the weeks prior to the Olympics, The New York Times ran a story that said people were being mugged in the shadow of the beach volleyball bleachers that were being erected on Copacabana Beach. Though there were assorted stories of danger as the Games unfolded, the massive military presence in the city almost immediately quelled most fears.
At Sochi 2014, the stories in the lead-up were about the potential of Chechen- rebel violence, usually bolstered by a reference to the headline- friendly “Black Widow” suicide bombers. At London 2012, terror concerns led to a massive security presence, with anti- aircraft missile launchers set up in tourist areas like Hyde Park. As is the case any time a large public event is held in the post- 9/ 11 world, the Olympics are always seen as a potential target for a group looking to make a significant terror impact. But the costly security measures in place — every venue is ringed by airport- style screening — have limited those opportunities and turned the Games themselves into a hard target.
The nuclear standoff has, at least, introduced a new element to the concerns. As the North has pushed ahead with provocative tests and ignored warning after warning against doing so, those planning to attend Pyeongchang 2018 have wondered what i t might all mean. Would Kim-Jong Un be crazy enough to start a war during the Olympics?
But, while escalated tensions are only an intemperate tweet away, the events of the past few weeks would seem to have dramatically scaled down the likelihood of the worst-case scenario. One doesn’t have to be an expert in Asian geopolitics to assume that North Korea doesn’t want to bomb an Olympics with North Koreans present.
South Korean officials have gone to pains, though, to say that the invitations to North Koreans — there are 22 athletes and another dozen or so officials — were about more than a missiledefence security blanket. Under new president Moon Jae- in, the son of North Korean refugees, the South has insisted that the Olympics are a chance for a celebratory party that should include the whole peninsula.
“The world will witness peace through the Olympic Games,” Moon said in a latesummer address.
So far, his words have been proven correct.