South Korea Thanks World For Successful Olympics

(ATR) South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kwang-wha thanked the world’s participation in PyeongChang 2018 as an "opportunity to jump start talks" on the Korean peninsula.

Kang gave thanks in an address on social media ahead of the third ever inter-Korean summit. South Korean President Moon Jae-In will meet with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Un in the south side of the Demilitarized Zone. It will be the first time a member from the ruling Kim family leaves North Korea for a summit.

"First of all thank you so much for the great success of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics earlier this year," Kang said. "It would not have happened without the enthusiastic participation and support from many of you around the world. The Games were the biggest in the history of the Winter Olympics, and it was also an opportunity to jump start talks between South and North Korea after a long period of non-engagement and rising tension."

Interest in the summit has been closely monitored around the world. The South Korean government says it will live stream the event on domestic channels, and a media center has been built specifically for the event. Thousands of journalists have been accredited for the summit, from all over the world.

Twitter followers across the world! We want to let you know history is being made on the Korean Peninsula. The top leaders of the two sides will meet for an lnter-Korean Summit on April 27. Cheer us on, and stay tuned! #peacekorea #남북정상회담 pic.twitter.com/pZVOPV3yjh

After Kim and Moon meet, Kim is expected to meet with United States President Donald Trump in a summit in late May or early June. Trump would become the first U.S. President to meet directly with a member of the Kim family.

Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the upcoming talks, and agreeing to meet with Kim himself. During a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump said North Korea going to PyeongChang made it "quite an Olympics" before repeating an oft-repeated line about how his administration made the Games successful.

"Without us and without me in particular, I guess, you would have to say, that [the two Koreas] wouldn’t be discussing anything, including the Olympics would have been a failure," Trump said. "Instead, it was a great success."

The latter half of 2017 was marked by increased escalation of tensions between North Korea and the United States, as well as rising security concerns for the Olympics. North Korea tested a number of intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as its sixth nuclear test. Compounding the situation was a war of words between Trump and Kim, which has since softened.

IOC President Thomas Bach said the "politically neutral" sport organization played a key role in the upcoming talks by bringing the two sides to the table. The IOC joined the political process late, stepping in after North and South Korean officials agreed to an initial framework for PyeongChang 2018 participation in early January. The IOC then approved North Korea’s participation, as deadlines for registration, as well as most qualification, had passed. It also approved the first ever joint Korean team at an Olympics, with the creation of the joint women’s hockey team.

"I think we can say that with the initiatives that the IOC took, we have opened the door for this," Bach told the Yomiuri Shimbun last month. "It is our mission to make the world a better place through sports, and we can say so far, mission accomplished, by opening this window of opportunity for the political world."

Jean Lee, director of the Korea Center at the Wilson Center and former Pyongyang Bureau Chief for the AP, told Around the Rings that Kim had long seen the value of participating in the PyeongChang Games for achieving diplomatic goals.

"I think he saw the potential years ago; in fact, I mentioned it in interviews back in 2014 when he built a world-class ski resort," Lee said.

That resort, Masikryong, held a joint training session between North and South Korean skiers as part of Olympic preparations. Lee says she expects the upcoming summit to bring proclamations of Korean unity, as well as concessions over divided families from the Korean War. The summit will also serve as a bridge to the potential Trump-Kim meeting.

"Kim will want to glean as much information from President Moon as he can about President Trump, and likewise, President Moon will want to maintain his key role in this whole process by being able to tell the White House who Kim is and what he wants," Lee said.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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