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Members of the One Korea Joint Cheering squad wave Korean Peninsula flags during the 2018 Asian Games One Korea Festival on Aug. 19 in Jakarta

The 2018 Asian Games, which are being hosted in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang, is the first international sporting events to bring together South and North Korean athletes since the Apr. 27 Panmunjom Declaration. Koreans living in Indonesia and the One Korea Joint Cheering Squad have come together to help the wave of peace that began at Panmunjeom sweeps over Jakarta and cover the whole world.

At 4 pm on Aug. 19, the organizing committee of the One Korea Joint Cheering Squad for the 2018 Asian Games began the 2018 Asian Games One Korea Festival, held at Korea House, in Jakarta’s Sudirman Millenia Tower.

“If South and North Korea got the ball rolling on exchange at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang offers a chance for them to promise to forge an even closer relationship. Before long, we need to work together to create a unified Korean team not only in sports but in every area,” said Lee Chang-bok, chair of the organizing committee.

At Korea House, where the festival was held, about 200 members of an association of Koreans living in Indonesia and the One Korea Joint Cheering Squad also did some preliminary cheering for the unified inter-Korean women’s basketball team, which was scheduled to play its third qualifying round the next day. They sang the song “Arirang” to the beat of the traditional percussion group Salpan, which performed during the opening ceremony the previous day, and shouted slogans such as “We are one” and “Win the game, Korea” while waving the Korean Unification Flag.

In the middle of Salpan’s performance, one of the group’s members doffed his lion masks and handed them to Do Jong-Hwan, South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Kim Deog-ryong, Executive Vice-Chair of the National Unification Advisory Council. After putting on the masks, Do and Kim came on stage for a spirited dance routine.

In the concert that followed, Kang San-ae, a singer who took part in a concert in Pyongyang in April, made a few remarks. “I feel bad about getting the first chance to visit Pyongyang. But I believe that the day will soon come when we’ll all be free to go there,” Kang said.

After attending the opening ceremony of Korea House during the day, Do Jong-hwan and Ahn Min-seok, chair of the National Assembly’s Education, Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, also offered words of encouragement during a visit to the Korea Festival.

“When I was watching South and North Korean athletes training together in a boat at the rowing stadium in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, last month, I found myself thinking that we’re really ‘in the same boat.’ I would like to thank the cheerleaders for taking the lead in creating a system in which South and North Korea can coexist peacefully through exchange in sports, culture and the arts,” Do said.

“I hope that inter-Korean teams will be organized in even more events in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 than in this session of the Asian Games. We’re considering the idea of making preparations to set up as many unified teams as possible for the Tokyo Olympics as soon as the Asian Games are over. Two years from now, we hope that the North Korean delegation will also attend the One Korea event to really make it “One Korea.”

By Choi Min-young, staff reporter

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