A United Korea Olympic Team Has Never Improved Relations. This Year Will Be Different.

Media Coverage | January 23, 2018

In a piece for Fortune magazine, published January 22, the authors argue that any reasonable measure, such as a joint Olympic Korean team, should be treated as a viable opportunity toward a meaningful resolution. "Now is the time to build upon this unexpected dynamic productively, thoughtfully, and with all deliberate speed."

The world will watch nearly 100 nations participate in 102 separate events during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea next month. All eyes will be on The Republic of Korea (ROK) and The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) as athletes from South and North Korea march under one flag. This international sports event could be a constructive early step toward solving the nuclear conundrum on the Korean Peninsula.

This is the not the first time that Seoul and Pyongyang have shared the international stage under one standard. Both countries arrived under one cloth in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games and again in the 2006 Winter Games as part of the wildly unsuccessful Sunshine Policy, which served as a basis for South Korea’s foreign policy toward its neighbors in the North, between 1998 and 2007.

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Photo: "Figure Skating Queen YUNA KIM" (CC BY-ND 2.0) by { QUEEN YUNA }