Sports Diplomacy at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics

Although the Olympic Games have traditionally been a time for countries to set aside their differences and unite through sports, certain geographic tensions still do manifest at these mega events. The "Foreign Correspondents" program on Arirang TV explores sports diplomacy prospects at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang and looks at how the event can impact North Korean-South Korean relations.

President Moon Jae-in has said that it is possible that the two countries work toward peace if North Korea decides to attend, but Donald Kirk, an author and CBS News journalist, warns that this may be overzealous. According to Kirk, “Sports would be very important in facilitating certain exchanges, but let’s not get too carried away by that. There was the famous Berlin Olympics of 1936, followed soon by World War II. And there was the Sarajevo Winter Olympics many years later, which was also followed by severe warfare.”

The full video is available here on the Arirang Issue's YouTube channel.