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A youth choir gives a performance on the steps of the Gangneung City Hall in Gangwon Province on Feb. 8

The Pyeongchang Olympics are finally beginning on Feb. 9. The past month or so since North Korea’s sudden early January decision to participate has been one of non-stop surprises, from inter-Korean talks taking place to the decision to field a unified women’s hockey team and have South and North Korean athletes enter together. More recently, there has also been the announcement of visits first by Supreme People’s Council Presidium president Kim Yong-nam and now by Workers’ Party Central Committee first vice director Kim Yo-jong. The “power of Pyeongchang” has brought developments that not long ago would have been unimaginable. Already, this Olympics has taken on a very different meaning from past events.

It is said that sports and politics should be kept separate, but what is happening in Pyeongchang at the moment is more than just a political matter. The Pyeongchang Olympics event is closely tied to peace and security – for Northeast Asia in a narrow sense, and for the entire world more broadly. Coming at a time when people are speaking far too casually about a “military option” and “preemptive strike” on the Korean Peninsula, the Pyeongchang Olympics are furnishing a foothold for improving inter-Korean relations and relaxing tensions on the peninsula, which is something the entire international community desires. Taking these kinds of steps toward peace is also in keeping with the Olympic spirit.

We look forward to seeing Kim Yo-jong and Kim Yong-nam taking part in frank and sincere inter-Korean discussion toward peace on the peninsula during their Feb. 10 Blue House visit. Depending on how things turn out, it may be a natural step for Seoul to answer by sending a special envoy to the North. This is the kind of trust-building we need – nursing the embers of reconciliation in inter-Korean relations that Pyeongchang has provided.

staff photographer)

The unfortunate and worrying part of this has been the US’s attitude. US Vice President Mike Pence’s remarks since arriving in South Korea for the Olympics have shown an attitude far divorced from the current climate, including his declarations that he will not meet with the North. The fact that North Korea sent Kim Yo-jong, who is Kim Jong-un’s younger sister, suggests its leader’s strong hopes for a change in the situation.

North Korea’s decision to send back the foreign reporters originally invited to its military foundation anniversary parade on Feb. 8 and to forgo the live on-the-spot coverage from past years suggests a certain level of good faith as well. The US will be hard-pressed to avoid being held responsible if its ignorance of this opportunity leads to the peninsula being plunged back into serious tensions.

Hopefully, the Pyeongchang Olympics will be a first step in getting the ball rolling toward North Korea-US dialogue. The Moon Jae-in administration, for its part, needs to produce some results not just in inter-Korean diplomacy, but also in mediating for dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

Some conservatives are denouncing North Korea’s very participation in the Olympics as a “propaganda push” for its regime. But it’s silly to fear that South Koreans are going to be left awestruck and defenseless in the face of North Korean propaganda. The spectacle of conservative groups traveling to Mukho Port for the Feb. 6 arrival of the North Korean performance group’s Mangyongbong ferry to burn North Korean and Korean Peninsula flags and pictures of Kim Jong-un had fed-up Gangwon residents holding a press conference to ask “those disrupting the Pyeongchang Peace Olympics” to “get out of pristine Gangwon Province.” The Liberty Korea Party and others have no rationale for continuing their “Pyongyang Olympics” attacks while the Pyeongchang Olympics are taking place.

A rehearsal for the Pyeongchang Olympics opening ceremony takes place at the Pyeongchang Olympic stadium on Feb. 8. (by Park Jong-shik

After the North Korean performers deemed other accommodations unsuitable and arrived on the Mangyongbang, the local conservative press began dwelling on the violation of the “May 24 measures” which were passed in the wake of the 2010 ROKS Cheonan sinking. When the North Koreans asked for water and fuel, these conservatives denounced the “violation of UN sanctions”; when National Sports Guidance Committee Choe Hwi was included in the North Korean delegation, they assailed what they insisted was an attempt to bust UN sanctions by including someone subject to a travel ban.

Yet less than 24 hours after the announcement of Choe’s visit, the UN Security Council approved it, granting an exception “following due consideration.” It is deeply embarrassing to see the way some conservative South Koreans have been working non-stop to blow up these minor conflicts when the whole world is celebrating South and North’s unity at the Pyeongchang Olympics and hoping for the Games’ success.

Pope Francis said on Feb. 8 that the North Korean athletes’ participation in the Olympics “inspires hope for reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula.” We join the rest of the world in hoping that the winds of peace blowing from Pyeongchang spread through the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the world and carry on after the Olympics are over.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]