North Korea matters in sports
By Kim Yoo-eun
In this year’s Olympic Games, North Korea finished 20th in the medal count, its best performance in two decades since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The insular nation won an impressive total of four gold and two bronze medals in various events ― one of which allowed one North Korean athlete, Kim Un-guk, to break the world record in men’s weightlifting in the 62kg category.
In light of the country’s accomplishments, I expressed my support for North Korea to my friends which in return was met with bewildered responses from my American peers. Their reaction was understandable, given the complicated history and hostile relationship between the two Koreas.
In the realm of sports, viewers sympathize with the underdogs’ journey from mediocrity to triumph. While the isolationist, poverty-stricken nation of North Korea has performed beyond the expectations of many, its impressive accumulation of accolades has been overshadowed by the communist nation’s tumultuous reputation.
Under Kim Jong-un’s new leadership, North Korea has yet to address its incalculable human rights abuses, dilapidated economic system, and threat to global security. Once again, North Korea has received the “honor” of being one of the top countries in the Failed States Index, an annual ranking compiled by Foreign Policy. Its 22nd rank from last year’s has remained the same, showing no quantitative progress. Despite rumors of North Korea implementing a new economic plan, his schooling in Switzerland, and his recent lively televised appearances, Kim Jong-un has not taken any substantial action for the world audience to believe there are positive economic and political changes underway.
North Korea is seen as a political and economic liability in the Asia Pacific region. Talks between the South Korean and North Korean governments have so far proven unproductive, given President Lee administration’s strict policies on the North, Kim Jong-un’s recent and fragile succession to the North Korean leadership, and fairly recent South-North confrontations such as the 2010 warship Cheonan sinking, which took the lives of 46 seamen.
Yet in spite of this chaos and friction, there exists a significant link that ties South and North Koreans together; the people of both nations hail from one race, one culture, one entity and one “minjok.’’
At a time when the two countries’ relationship was more amicable thanks to President Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy, Olympics delegates and athletes from the two Koreas marched hand-in-hand under the Korean Unification Flag at the opening ceremonies at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympic Games. However, this tradition was a brief one; ever since the beginning of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the two countries have resumed making separate entrances at the opening sessions.
Highlighting the bitter relationship shared between the two countries, controversy at the 2012 Olympic Games ensued when the video screen featuring the North Korean women soccer team placed the members next to a South Korean flag. In retaliation, the North Korean team walked off and the soccer match with Colombia was delayed for about an hour.
As another Summer Olympics passes, I hope that South Koreans will continue their support of North Korea’s participation in world sports and also see the day when people of Korea make a grand entrance onto the world stage under the same flag as they did in previous years. If so, both South and North Korea would have achieved a small part in the Olympics’ overarching goal of bringing unity through sportsmanship.
Despite our disparate national obligations, loyalties, and five decades of the Korean War armistice agreement, we must not forget that North Koreans and South Koreans are the same people; we are Koreans and no political entanglement can change that.
The writer is a freshman at Smith College located in Northampton, Mass.