“North Korea didn’t think that was funny,” said Donald Baker, a professor of Korean history at the University of British Columbia. But after North and South Korean athletes marched and competed under one flag at Pyeongchang 2018, that trend may have shifted. That wasn’t enough for North Korea, and when it became clear the Soviet Union and China would not back their demands with a boycott, South Korea lost interest in the negotiations. South Korea’s central bank has estimated that North Korean’s gross national income is about US$32 billion, the Wall Street Journal wrote last week, more than 40 times smaller than South Korea’s. If that happens, he said, uniting with South Korea at the Olympics and other major sporting events could promote cohesion by challenging long-held stereotypes — namely, that North Koreans are “fanatical warmongers” and South Koreans are American puppets.

Source: National Post September 24, 2018 12:58 UTC