Korea's Olympic Unity Will Be Short-Lived

The appearance of Olympic amity on the Korean Peninsula will be short-live

- Andy Sharp and Kanga Kong

With the Winter Olympics set to kick off in the alpine resort town of Pyeongchang, South Korea has welcomed a regime that only months ago was threatening to destroy it. North Korea has crashed the party, dispatching pop diva Hyon Song Wol and a cheerleading troupe, dubbed the “army of beauties,” as cultural emissaries. On Feb. 9, in a gesture designed to strike an emotional chord, a combined NorthSouth team will march behind a Korean unity flag at the opening ceremony that will be broadcast worldwide.

Such is the surreal state of play on the Korean Peninsula, thanks to a diplomatic gambit initiated by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and embraced at the start of the year by North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Both sides are counting on sports diplomacy to ease the acrimony between the two nations, which have technically been at war since 1953. Moon has described the move as a “good opportunity for inter-Korean peace and reconciliation.” Kim’s government is also making soothing sounds. In late January, the isolated nation called for a “breakthrough for independent reunification” and “great changes to the NorthSouth relations as early as possible.”

Behind all the gauzy rhetoric are some less-exalted motives, starting with the $12.5 billion in investments South Korea has riding on a successful Olympics—and Kim’s desire to keep Washington from derailing his accelerated buildout of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles that can reach major American cities.

Kim will lose nothing by sending his athletes to the games, but he’s made North Korea the center of all media narratives about the Winter Olympics. His negotiators refused even to broach the topic of denuclearization during recent talks, the first in more than two years, yet they won a concession from the U.S. and South Korea to halt joint military exercises until after the games.