2018 Pyongyang Olympics

President Moon Jae-in speaks to a female ice hockey player in training early this month. / Korea Times

By Oh Young-jin

Just in case the title makes you wonder whether the venue for February's Winter Games has changed, it hasn't. The quadrennial event will still be held in PyeongChang, South Korea, from Feb. 9-25, as scheduled.

The imaginary Olympics in the North Korean capital is a byproduct of an ongoing, fierce domestic political fight, with the conservative opposition now on the offensive, saying that the liberal Moon Jae-in government is making so many concessions to the North that the Games should be ridiculed as such.

In a rare turn of events, the public also are taking sides with Moon's detractors, pushing his popularity below 60 percent for the first time since his May inauguration.

The pollsters claim that it was not just typically conservative old generations but also those in their 20s and 30s, part of Moon's support base, who are up in arms against the government's policy of rapport with the North.

Democracy is ruled by a majority. But it is public knowledge that its rule doesn't necessarily come with wisdom.

Isn't the ongoing backlash against Moon an example in point? You should be the judge.

First, people are upset because they believe he is rewarding the North for its bad behavior. The North has developed nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that the U.S. is taking as a threat that should be eliminated, even through pre-emptive attacks. Besides, the war of words the U.S. and the North have waged for the past year forced the world to confront the possibility of nuclear war. But during this deadly show of theatrics, South Koreans, who are supposed to be most vulnerable in the event of hostility, are by and large pushed to the sideline.

Now, some of them think their president is begging this bully in the North to come to PyeongChang. For the joint female ice hockey team, the Moon government has sacrificed some of the South Korean players' appearances or playing time to make room for the subpar northern players. Then, the North's advance team for art performances has arbitrarily delayed its visit to Seoul, adding to public antipathy.

The southerners' sense of frustration comes from their realization that they have little say in their own fate ― also reinforced by the swaggering leader of their key ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, who is breathing down Moon's neck as well.

Also in play is the public's suspicion of Moon's ideology. Moon has inherited liberal President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of reconciliation with the North and his successor Roh Moon-hyun's "sunshine 2.0." Moon's North Korea policy was called "moonshine," the portmanteau that sounds intoxicatingly inappropriate.

Now can be looked back at later as Moon's moment of truth when pseudo-liberals, the key building blocks of his mighty popularity, unmask themselves and go back to their ideological base, no longer feeling it necessary to pretend otherwise after being shamed by the ouster of the conservative President Park Geun-hye.

But these Moon detractors are either intentionally or inadvertently missing one pivotal fact that actually enables them to complain about their leader ― the Olympic truce.

What if the North had stayed away from PyeongChang and threatened to test intercontinental ballistic missiles or nuclear devices?

The U.S. wouldn't stand aside to allow the North to mock it, considering it would bruise Trump and eat away at the country's global leadership.

The result would increase tension on the peninsula, scaring away Games participants. Currently, an Olympic boycott may be unthinkable but the situation was quite precarious even a month ago, before Korea and the U.S. decided to postpone their joint military drills, which the North calls a war preparation.

Even now there is much doomsday forecasting that tension will return after the Games as the U.S. continues its effort to dismantle the North's weapons of mass destruction before they become a real threat to its mainland.

So if Moon seems to be acting as if he didn't have a backbone, putting himself at the beck and call of the U.S. and the North, it has paid off in the kind of peace dividend that we take for granted.

The wisdom of Moon's approach becomes apparent when confronting his detractors with the question: Do they want military tension to rise instead of the peace we have? Some would definitely state they want a different peace, one with dignity and pride.

The peace with all supposed trappings is a luxury only a few can indulge in. Rather, any peace comes with a price. Besides, peace has the same characteristic as air ― it is something you can't appreciate until it is taken away.

If people think Moon may look a spineless politician wobbling any way the pressure comes, they would be mistaken.

Rather, Moon's action is one of conviction by a leader who is keenly aware anything less than peace could mean the end of our nation.

Oh Young-jin (foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com) is the digital managing editor of The Korea Times.

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