Cha Yun-hee, center, a member of the South Korean women's football team, offers to assist a North Korean opponent during the East Asian Football Federation Cup at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Mapo in July 2013. / Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
Given the troubled history between South and North Korea, it's difficult to imagine that the sides marched under the same flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
The unified marches, also held at the Sydney and Athens Games, fell in line with a reconciliatory mood on the peninsula as well as the idea that, in the words of the late Nelson Mandela, sport "has the power to change the world."
But tensions in recent years — including the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010 — have put sports diplomacy on hold.
That's why attention is keenly focused on the 2014 Asian Games taking place in Incheon, where a delegation of over 150 athletes from the North, as well as media and officials, have been participating.
Despite ongoing tensions, experts say sports could help build momentum towards more dialogue between the two countries.
"The Asian Games may help weaken a sense of foreignness between the sides, thereby building an emotional bond. The event may be an effective lubricant for inter-Korean relations," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University.
Sports have long played a role in international relations. In 1964, the International Olympic Committee's withdrawal of South Africa's Summer Olympics invitation contributed to the disintegration of the apartheid regime.
In 1971, nine American table tennis players visited China, helping to open the lines of communication between the countries.
Such engagement between the Koreas took shape in 1990, when the countries established a series of football friendlies.
The games came against the backdrop of German unification; with the fall of the Berlin Wall providing the momentum. One game took place in Pyongyang, the other in Seoul.
The next year, 1991, saw a breakthrough in sports diplomacy: the fielding of joint table tennis teams at the World Table Tennis Champions in Chiba, Japan.
The female doubles team comprised of North Korean star Li Pun-hui and the South's Hyun Jung-hwa advanced to the finals.
Their opponent, China, had won eight consecutive women's world team titles. But the joint Korean team ended the streak and clinched the gold medal.
The same year, the World Youth Football Championship in Portugal provided another opportunity for a joint team. The unified side made it to the quarterfinals, but lost 5-1 to Brazil.
The engagement was part of a thaw in bilateral relations, which led to the signing of the 1991 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, which called for reconciliation, non-aggression and cooperation on the peninsula.
Sports diplomacy returned in 1999 in the form of basketball, when hoopsters from each side met for goodwill games in Pyongyang and Seoul in the name of unification.
Relations improved under late former President Kim Dae-jung and his "Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation. On June 15 in 2000, Kim and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il signed the South-North Joint Declaration, which outlined economic cooperation and the resolution of humanitarian issues, such as the reunion of separated families.
Riding the reconciliatory mood, the two Koreas marched together during the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games, under a unification flag. The sides also marched together at the Olympics in Athens (2004) and Turin (2006).
The year 2002 saw the resumption of the inter-Korean football friendlies. That year, the North also dispatched a cheerleading squad to the 14th Asian Games, taking place in Busan.
The countries continued to cooperate in sports over the next few years, holding a joint training session for table tennis players in 2004 and football matches in 2005. Also in 2005, the North's cheerleaders visited for the Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon. Ri Sol-ju, now first lady of the communist dictatorship, was part of the squad.
However, a policy change at Cheong Wa Dae in 2008 put the exchanges on hold.
Former President Lee Myung-bak touted a harder line than his predecessors, tying engagement to the dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear program.
The North, unhappy with the changes, ramped up its belligerent attitude towards the South, sinking the warship Cheonan in 2010 and shelling the border island of Yeonpyeong later that year. Fifty South Koreans perished in those incidents. Seoul has since maintained strict sanctions on the northern neighbor.
In 2011, the sides began to dabble in sports diplomacy again, fielding a unified table tennis team for the Qatar Peace and Sport Cup. Yoo Seung-min of the South and Kim Hyuk-bong of the North won in men's doubles.
Last year, the North Korean women's football team took part in the 2013 East Asian Football Federation Cup in Seoul and won the gold medal. Also, a South Korean weightlifting team traveled to Pyongyang for the 2013 Asian Cup and Interclub Weightlifting Championship.
Despite the North's decision not to send its cheerleaders to this year's Incheon Asian Games, hopes are still high that the event will provide a chance for Koreas to extend their sports diplomacy efforts.
The writer is an intern for The Korea Times.