The Moon Jae-in administration is leaning toward North Korea for its participation in the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang next month.
But the inter-Korean agreements that were finalized at a meeting hosted by the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland on Saturday, are facing domestic headwinds.
The North made little of the South by suspending and resuming a pre-Olympic visit to the South without offering any explanation.
Despite public opinion against fielding a unified team in the women’s ice hockey, according to the IOC, 12 players and one official from North Korea will be added to the existing South Korean side of 23 players.
As the united team will send 22 players to a rink as other teams do, concern about some South Korean players being sidelined and damage to their teamwork has become a reality. It is regrettable that their chances have been sacrificed for the North’s participation. The South Korean head coach will take charge of the squad but at least three players from North Korea must be selected for each team.
The government emphasizes a big picture of the South-North reconciliation, but whether that can calm strong sentiment against the formation of a united team and other agreements is questionable.
According to an SBS survey on Jan. 9, 72.9 percent of respondents said there was no need to press ahead with the creation of a unified team, and 82 percent of people in their 20s and 30s, where Moon has strongest support, were against the idea.
Hundreds of petitions opposing the plan were posted on Cheong Wa Dae’s website. An ice hockey fan filed a complaint against Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Do Jong-hwan, arguing the deal infringes on the rights of South Korean ice hockey players.
But the government, which proposed a unified team without consulting the South Korean team, did not listen.
The agreement to march at the opening ceremony under a single flag of unknown origin, a blue image of the Korean Peninsula on a white background, will undoubtedly frustrate many in the South who looked forward to seeing the national flag enter the Olympic stadium. They will also feel dissatisfied to hear “Arirang,” a Korean folk song both Koreas and the IOC agreed to play, instead of the national anthem, at awarding ceremonies. The Moon administration will find it hard to avoid criticisms of harming the legitimacy of South Korea.
It is hard to understand the agreement to celebrate the eve of the Olympics at Kumgangsan in North Korea, where a South Korean tourist was shot to death by a North Korean soldier in 2008 around a hotel there. The accord to send South Korean skiers, though non-Olympic ones, to Masikryong ski resort in the North for a joint training session is unconvincing. The ski resort is touted as one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s signature achievements.
Pyongyang confused Seoul by suspending its advance team’s scheduled visit to the South to check concert halls where a North Korean art troupe is scheduled to perform. It did not say why. The South pressed the North to explain why it had suspended the visit. Hours later, after making no reply at all, the North said that it would send the team Sunday, also without explanation.
Confusion surrounding the visit settled within a day, but this can happen again anytime given the North’s unpredictable and unruly behavior. The government must not overlook the issue of the North giving no explanation for its behavior.
The Unification Ministry speculated that Pyongyang’s discomfort at South Korean news reports was at the source of the suspension, implicitly asking them to refrain from reporting critically on the talks and the North. It has gone too far in trying to appease the North.
It is understandable that the government wants to use the Olympics as a stepping stone toward peace on the Korean Peninsula, but an obsession with peace will stir up backlash. The government needs to reflect whether it has overstepped the mark.
