US review of boycotting Beijing Olympics further cornering Seoul's peace initiative

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington D.C., Thursday. Biden said that the U.S. is considering a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games. AP-Yonhap

By Kwon Mee-yoo

After President Joe Biden revealed the possibility of a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, all South Korea's hopes for a chance to improve relations with North Korea and declare a formal end to The Korean War, important initiatives of the Moon Jae-in administration, appear to be shot.

According to reports, Biden, after meetings with leaders of Canada and Mexico, said the U.S. was considering a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in protest of the Chinese government's human rights abuses.

A diplomatic boycott means that no high-level officials will be sent to the Olympics, although U.S. athletes will be able to take part in the Winter Games.

The Moon administration has been pursuing the possibility of discussions to start a peace process for the Korean peninsula at the Winter Games in hopes that this would be the administration's final diplomatic feat ahead of the presidential election next year.

However, in September, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended North Korea from the Beijing Winter Olympics in response to it not sending a team to the Tokyo Games, with Pyongyang citing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

With North Korea banned from the international sports event, a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Olympics could raise another problem for the Moon administration's attempts to officially declare an end to the Korean War.

Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics could overshadow South Korea's expressions of hope to North Korea for a formal declaration ending the Korean War.

"An end-of-war declaration could be announced by the foreign affairs minister or head of state. It seems that the South Korean government wanted to declare an end to the Korean War at the Beijing Olympics following a summit," Shin said.

"However, if the U.S. diplomatically boycotts the Beijing Winter Games and no U.S. officials attend the event, it would be difficult to announce an end-of-war declaration without the U.S.”

Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, also said a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games would put South Korea in the tricky position in deciding whether to send diplomatic officials to the Olympics or not.

"The U.S. could boycott the Beijing Games alone, but it is more likely that the U.S. would call for its allies, including Korea, Japan and European countries, to also join the boycott. This could be a burden for the Moon administration as the Beijing Olympics is the administration's one last hope at diplomacy," Park said.

"The U.S. diplomatic boycott restricts President Moon's possible actions, while China would try to bring key allies of the U.S. such as South Korea to Beijing. If China invites Kim Jong-un, President Moon must go to Beijing."