North Korea agrees to enter Winter Olympics

For months Kim Jong-un has been embroiled in a war of words against America and its allies. But soon his nation will be cast into a contest of a different sort, with North Korean athletes set to compete at next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The agreement was made in a meeting yesterday between North and South Korean officials — the first meeting between the nations for two years. According to South Korean minister Chun-Hae-sung they also discussed “the need to end acts that escalate tensions” in the region and the prospect of “denuclearisation”.

In a gesture of cooperation Seoul even suggested the two nations walk into the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies together — hugely symbolic for two countries technically still at war.

Last year saw a surging demand for “war survival kits” among South Koreans, as many worried that their neighbour’s weapons tests were a prelude for war. But now some hope the games will bring change.

North Korea expert Michael Madden described the announcement as a “gesture of peace”, but conceded that North Korea’s attendance alone “wouldn’t resolve the long-standing crisis”.

Peace has long been associated with the Olympics. When they began in Greece over 2,000 years ago, competitors agreed an “Olympic truce” in which warring states would stop fighting during the events.

However, the modern competition has often exaggerated global tensions without doing much to solve them.

Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Berlin Olympics to promote his fascist ideology to the world, suffusing the event with Nazi pageantry and insignia. And during the cold war the entire American team boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Russia returned the favour for the Los Angeles Olympics four years later.

The last Olympics hosted by South Korea was the 1988 summer games. However, this came a year after North Korean agents had blown up a Korean passenger plane, killing 115 people. The attack was plotted by the North Korean government who wanted to disrupt the South Korea games.

Could this event finally bring peace to the region?

Blood sport

Not a chance, some argue. There is a deeper political reality here. Kim sees his nuclear weapons as the one thing guaranteeing his nation’s survival. And while that remains the case, no permanent truce will be struck — no matter how many sports events the North Koreans turn up to.

There is hope, others say. The two nations share a bitter and violent past, but there is more that unites them. Even for warring nations, sport offers a peaceful means of coming together. And the more the North engages with the South, either in boardrooms or on the sports field, the more plausible a long term solution becomes.