North Korean flag and cheer leaders

Most of South Korean daily newspapers published a picture of 94 North Korean athletes arriving to compete in Incheon Asian Games on the front page on Thursday. Female athletes on the bus waved hands and smiled at the reporters. They looked friendly, but the atmosphere in the Incheon International Airport seemed to reflect the current status of inter-Korean relations. Police installed the access control line to prohibit contacts between the North Korean team and reporters. About 200 domestic and foreign reporters couldn’t ask North Korean athletes about impression to arrive in the South and had to take pictures from a distance.

.

Controversy over raising the North Korean flag also leaves bitter taste. The Public Security Department of Supreme Prosecutor’s Office provides a guideline that says, “It is allowed to raise the North Korean flag inside the stadium and athletes’ village to the limited extent. However, it is banned to put up the flag on the streets, even though it is adjacent to the stadium.” The North Korean flag was raised in the downtown of Goyang City in Gyeonggi Province and was put down due to backlash of conservative groups. Based on the international practices, it is not natural to exclude only North Korean flag while hoisting all national flags of participating countries in front of the Asian Game related buildings.

Such sensitivity is not just about us. North Korea is much more sensitive to Taegeukgi, national flag of South Korea. The only occasion when North Korea allowed to raise Taegeukgi since the division of two Koreas was ‘Asian Cup and Asian Weightlifting Championships’ held in Pyeongyang in September, 2013. The preliminary round between North and South Koreas for 2010 South African World Cup, which was supposed to be held in Pyeongyang in 2008, was held in China due to opposition of North Korea. North Korea rejected to raise South Korean national flag and play South Korean national anthem in front of several tens of thousands of audiences. Even so, if we don’t take any further step from principles upheld during Busan Asian Games 12 years ago, there will be no progress in the inter-Korean relations.

The organizing committee is concerned as the festive mood for Asian Games is not strongly felt. If the South Korean government took a bold step to induce participation of North Korean cheering squad, it would have changed the mood and helped to increase popularity of Asian Games. South Korea needs to utilize the past experiences of holding Olympics and World Cup and turn Asian Games into an opportunity to thaw frozen relations between the North and the South. By embracing North Korean athletes who take a long way to come, if we show them advancement and freedom of Korean society, it will lay the foundation for successful Asian Games and let them see a glimpse of South Korean regime.