Baby Steps
With revived bluster from Kim Jong Un’s government in the past few months, tensions between North and South Korea seemed to have reached an impasse. Despite this, in mid-January, the two nations announced to the world that athletes from both countries would compete together on a united women’s ice hockey team. As recently as February 3, the Pyongyang government sent one of its highest ranking officials, Kim Yong Nam, to Seoul to continue talks. While some may dismiss this set of events as a superficial change in the realm of sports, it is possible that this united ice hockey team will be the first step in the long process of reunification.
At Syracuse University, home to a large number of both Korean international and Korean-American students, people generally had positive views on the idea of a united team. Korean reunification has always been an important topic of discourse at school.
Justin Song, a sophomore in the Korean American Student Association (KASA), said, “It’s definitely a good thing to see. The people suffering in North Korea are people just like us. They have similar ideologies, but they differ on government. As for SU students, there’s a form of toleration and cooperation in which people of different backgrounds come together. We should still try to sympathize with one another and work together as a result.”
Others in KASA weren’t quite as optimistic but remained supportive overall. One student commented, “It’s been a big step, but also it has not. As SU students, we are all human beings. It might be a sign that there’s some sort of progress.” However, in relation to settling real differences on a global platform, he said, “Compared to the tolerance we see at school, it will take a while.”
Samuel Kim, another sophomore in KASA, believes that the unified hockey team is “a right step in the direction to decrease tensions, but there needs to be more work, especially the nuclear and dictatorship ideals which they are especially stubborn with.”
Voicing similar opinions to those of KASA students, former president of Liberty in North Korea, Christopher Yin, gave an interesting message highlighting some key ideas. Firstly, he reiterated that these recent steps are pivotal in this stage of recuperation. However, he added that the connected stigmas of North Korea’s nuclear warheads, Kim Jong Un himself, and the constant risk of war, should be considered as well. Additionally, Yin’s comments were tinged with pessimism stemming from his knowledge of previous Korean attempts at negotiations in the past decades. Each attempt was marred by who could gain more, which, in Yin’s view, came at the cost of human suffering in North Korea. As a result, people have suffered from these series of negotiations. Though there were different reactions to the unified hockey team, the students I spoke to all seemed to be accustomed to the view put forward by Yin’s second point: that of North Koreans being oppressed by a cruel regime. Finally, he emphasized that he hopes people can and will put aside their differences rather than succumb to violence.
Professor George Kallander is one of the leading researchers and experts on South Korea at Syracuse University. He said, “I am not Korean-American, but as an American who has invested his life in Korea, I am happy to see North Korea and South Korea talking.” He expanded, saying “it would be nice to simply have anything that can reduce the tension on the peninsula.”
While the situation is still strained, these nations have taken a step forward to bilateral talks with the hope of thawing frosty relations down the line. In this recent turn of events, I sense a similar outcome to that of the US-Cuban thaw in 2016. Since the women’s ice hockey team will be playing under a United Korea flag, I believe this progress could represent a turning point for all Koreans and Korean Americans who have endured 60 years of the bitter history between these two countries. While this is not the first time that a team with athletes from both North and South Korea will compete together, this instance seems to be more significant.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and other high ranking officials attended the Opening Ceremony for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics last night, but the leader of North Korea himself was absent. Members of the Syracuse community, such as the students and faculty I conversed with, viewed these talks about the unified women’s hockey team as baby steps in the direction of future collaboration. We were also reminded that failure can arise from such negotiations, such as when a joint cultural performance was canceled last month in Seoul. However, a sense of cooperation and hope continues to be shown among the members of the Korean community in an institution like Syracuse University.