ANALYSIS: It’s about time North and South Korea starting talking again
It may seem like just a chat about the Olympic Games, but the last time it happened, in 1988, they missed a great opportunity
This week, South Korea accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s offer of "urgent" talks over his country’s participation in the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Although the sudden engagement over what might amount to two figure skaters crossing the border may not seem like a big deal, history suggests that ignoring the entreaty could be a major missed opportunity. To understand the significance of these talks, it’s worth remembering that the last time the Olympic Games were held on the Korean peninsula was in 1988. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to award the games to Seoul that year came as a surprise. At the time, South Korea was emerging from a coup and bloody demonstrations. Its economy was in tatters, the Soviet bloc was refusing to recognise it diplomatically, and tensions with North Korea were soaring. It was also a perilous moment for the broader Olympic project. Both the 1980 Moscow Games and the 1984 Los Angeles Games had been tarnished by Cold Wa...
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