North Korean cheerleaders baffle IOC
A North Korean cheerleader chants for Team Korea with a unification flag featuring a blue image of the Korean Peninsula with a blue dot, during the women’s ice hockey match against Switzerland at the Gwandong Ice Hockey Center in the eastern city of Gangneung, Saturday. The IOC banned the flag for violating its rule on political statements. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
NK turns deaf ear to IOC request to stop using flags featuring Dokdo
By Kang Hyun-kyung
North Korean cheerleaders have embarrassed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as they turned a deaf ear to a recommendation to stop using flags that the Olympic governing body believes carries political statements.
They used a “unification flag” featuring South Korea’s eastern-most islets of Dokdo, which Japan also claims sovereignty over, when they cheered for Korea in the women’s ice hockey games.
The flag displays a blue image of the Korean Peninsula with a blue dot in the East Sea representing Dokdo; and is a different version from the “official” one, which only has the image of the peninsula without a blue dot.
The flag was first used, Feb. 4, during Korea’s practice game against Sweden, ahead of the opening of the Olympics. The blue dot initially was on Team Korea’s uniform patches.
Japan protested this. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the depiction was “unacceptable.” Japan calls South Korea’s eastern-most islets Takeshima and claims they are part of its territory, the cause of a lingering diplomatic territorial row.
The IOC said the flag was a violation of its rule against political statements and recommended the two Koreas remove the dot. IOC rule 50 reads: “The Games are about sport and the IOC feels a special obligation both to ensure that the focus is on the athletes and their competition without being drawn into political controversies…”
The unification flag featuring Dokdo was banned under the rule as it allegedly highlights the territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said it respects the IOC’s decision. The blue dot was removed from the flag and since then the team has used a flag without the blue dot at the Olympics.
But the North Koreans ignored the IOC recommendation and cheered for Korea at the women’s ice hockey game against Switzerland, Saturday, using the flag. Korea was routed by the Sochi Olympic bronze medalists 0-8.
A day later, a journalist from Japanese broadcaster NHK addressed the issue during a daily media briefing in the Main Press Center in PyeongChang and asked how the IOC will deal with the North Koreans using the flag.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the North Koreans’ flag was not the one that was agreed upon in Switzerland. But he declined to provide details of how the Olympic governing body would deal with it.
Sung Baik-you, a spokesman of the PyeongChang organizing committee, reiterated a similar position and said the flag with the blue dot was different from the official one.
The North Korean cheerleaders used the flag again during Team Korea’s ice hockey game against Sweden at the Gangneung Ice Arena, Monday.
In the face of being banned by the IOC, countries and players follow their recommendation. Before the Olympics, Canadian-born goalie Matt Dalton, for example, wore a mask featuring Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598), a hero who defended the Joseon Kingdom from the Japanese invasion in the 1500s.
Before the Olympics, the IOC recommended Dalton remove the image or get a new mask as the image violated the rule against political statements. Dalton said he was disappointed by the IOC decision but would follow it.
Women’s ice hockey team goalie Shin So-jung faced a similar request. Her mask featured her late father who died when she was a high school student. The IOC said Shin’s mask also violated the rule against political statements, although the South Korean goalie’s father was an ordinary man. The image of her late father was not seen on her mask when she played in the games against Switzerland and Sweden.
But the IOC is facing a tricky situation regarding the “wayward” North Koreans who rarely heed repeated requests to stop using the flag.