Koreans to march together at Olympics
North and South Korea agree to have their athletes march together under one flag at the Winter Olympics and to field a joint women’s ice hockey team in the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation in a decade.
North and South Korea agreed Wednesday to march their athletes together under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics next month and to field a joint women’s hockey team. It was the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation between them in a decade.
South Korea, host of the Games, has said it hopes such a partnership in sports could contribute to a political thaw after years of high tensions. It came even as the prospect of war over the North’s nuclear and missile tests has grown especially acute.
The Games will begin Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the women’s hockey squad will be the first combined Korean team for the Olympics and the first unified team since their athletes played together for an international table-tennis championship and a youth soccer tournament in 1991.
The two countries’ delegations will march at the opening ceremony behind a “unified Korea” flag that shows an undivided Korean Peninsula, negotiators from both sides said in a joint news release after talks at the border village of Panmunjom.
The North will send 230 supporters to the Games, and negotiators agreed that supporters of both Koreas will root together for athletes from both countries.
The Olympics agreement could help President Moon Jaein of South Korea, who has been pushing for dialogue and reconciliation with the North.
Few expect that the move will lead to a quick breakthrough in the decades-old standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons program. But it provided a welcome reprieve for South Koreans who have grown both alarmed and weary over the tensions and talks of possible war in the peninsula.
The news was welcomed by top officials at the United Nations, where Secretary-General António Guterres has said he plans to attend the opening ceremonies. The president of the General Assembly, Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, said on Twitter: “Heartened by reports that Koreans from DPRK & RoK will march together in Olympics opening ceremony.”
The two countries also agreed Wednesday that their skiing teams will train together in the Masikryong ski resort in North Korea. The resort, a showpiece project of the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was opened in 2013.
So far, the only North Korean athletes to qualify for the Pyeongchang Games are a pairs figure skating team.