hankyoreh

Members of the North and South Korean women’s ice hockey teams pose for a photo along with representatives from the International Ice Hockey Federation at the 2017 Women’s Ice Hockey World Championships in Gangneung

“The goal of the Olympics is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” The fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter state that peace is central to the Olympics movement. It is a profoundly political motto that suggests using sports, the most apolitical of fields, to heal conflicts, strife, and enmity and achieve a better world.

It is in reflection of this mission that International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach granted North Korea a wild card to participate in the figure skating pairs event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after it missed the deadline for eligibility, and is committing great efforts to allow North Korean athletes to complete in other events such as short track speed skating, Alpine skiing, and cross country. The active efforts to field a unified Korean team in ice hockey, a team event, reflect the conclusion that efforts to reduce inter-Korean tensions conform more to the Olympic spirit of peace than Western individualism or rationalism.

The response from overseas media suggests the rest of the world welcomes discussions toward a unified team. CNN said it was “no surprise that it is sport...which has underpinned the first bit of dialogue between the two neighboring states in over two years.” France Info called the Olympics “more powerful than any other diplomatic process.” Jim Bell, who heads Olympics production and programming for NBC, said the Olympics had never been as fraught as they are now.

Journalist Nick Butler of the Olympic news site Inside the Games, which was first to report on the unified Korean ice hockey team, said the team appeared to have emerged from a plan by Bach and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). This indicates that it was not originally the plan of South and North Korean authorities to field a unified team for political ends. After news of the team was reported, first by Butler and later by the Hankyoreh, second vice culture minister Roh Tae-kang provided confirmation the following day.

The fielding of a unified women’s ice hockey team will also be a boon to the Pyeongchang Olympics. With NHL athletes unable to participate this time, the inter-Korean women’s ice hockey team will be drawing major attention from the global media. In South Korea, discussions on the unified team have taken on a much narrow scope than the IOC or international community’s views. The South Korean government had said it would “ensure this is not the source of any negative consequences for the North Korean athletes,” but there has also been a strong tendency to view this strictly in terms of the potential consequences for the athletes and the weakening of team cohesion.

Certainly, the athletes’ rights should not be compromised. But we should also prudently and objectively consider whether there are greater gains to be realized from concessions on some of those rights. After nine-plus years of conservative administrations, we may be experiencing some North Korea fatigue – but no reconciliation and no peace comes from hate. The unified inter-Korean women’s ice hockey team issue needs to be viewed within the broader framework of the Olympic spirit.

By Kim Chang-keum, staff reporter

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