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Big Power Wrangling at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

icon2018/02/22
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 Big Power Wrangling at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

 

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 13, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

 

The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics had a lavish opening ceremony; South and North Korea top echelons, along with US and Japanese leaders, gathered together, seemingly like a contracted version of the "six-party talks." When South Korea President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong exchanged a historic and enthusiastic hand-shake, in contrast, US Vice President Pence and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared to have been sidestepped. The supreme value of nationalism between North and South Korea overshadowed the international political wrangling. In this athletic feast permeates the atmospherics of a happy national get-together between North and South Korea; no wonder some people commented in jest that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was like "the Pyongyang Winter Olympics."

 

Moon Jae-in received the North Korea delegation at the Blue House, where Kim Yo Jong transmitted Kim Jong Un’s hand-written letter, besides expressing his hope to improve relations between the two Koreas, invited Moon Jae-in to visit North Korea at an early date. Under the North Korean offensive of tenderness, Moon Jae-in expected the two Koreas to jointly create the conditions to allow his visit to materialize as soon as possible. With respect to Abe’s reminder that South Korea should as soon as possible resume US-South Korea joint military exercises, Moon Jae-in appeared somewhat annoyed. Moon responded by saying that this was South Korea's national sovereignty and urged Abe not to intervene in South Korea's "internal affairs." Thus, it can be seen that the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula, because of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, is being quietly slanted toward North Korea.

 

During the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, US Vice President Pence did not have any interactions with the North Korean delegation; moreover, he emphasized that the policy of isolating North Korea remained unchanged. In other words, the principal mission of Pence’s trip this time was to play the role of brakes, wanting to call up the historical memories of the military confrontations between South and North Korea in order to water down Moon Jae-in’s pro-North Korea policy.

 

The great reconciliation between the two Koreans at the Winter Olympics this time is undoubtedly a collective counterattack of the Korean nation vis-à-vis the long-term US intervention in Korean Peninsula affairs, and also a reflection of South Korea's quest for autonomy under the suppression of the big powers. This mentality swings back and forth between Moon Jae-in’s nationalistic sentiments and Kim Jong-un's divisive tactics. Only, when nationalistic enthusiasm fades, the people of the two Koreas will find it easy to hoist the unification flag, but how difficult it would be to shake off the intervention of US influence.

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