Concerns Pyeongchang Games being used for political purposes

Any inter-Korean rapprochement conducted through the Games must lead to an easing of military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The content of the agreement between the two Koreas has left considerable apprehension.
South Korea and North Korea have held talks at the vice ministerial level and reached agreement on 11 issues, including having their athletes parade together at the opening ceremony and the participation of North Korea in the Pyeongchang Paralympics.
The nations will form a joint women’s ice hockey team to compete at the Games. If this proposal is accepted during discussions with the International Olympic Committee and other bodies, it will become the first unified team formed by the two Koreas to compete at an Olympics.
Several North Korean players reportedly would be added to the South Korean squad, which qualified for the Games as the host nation.
What has raised questions is that this joint team was decided at the initiative of the Moon administration without considering the wishes of the athletes that will compete at the Games.
The South Korean head coach criticised the decision, saying it could undermine the organisational capacity of the team. The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation, the governing body of one team scheduled to play against South Korea at the Games, also expressed doubt about the fairness of the process. These are natural reactions.
While Moon has acknowledged to the South Korean players that this would place an extra burden on them, he insisted that a joint team competing at the Olympics would become a historic moment. Moon apparently wants to leave a legacy of being the president who realised rapprochement between Seoul and Pyongyang through the Olympics. He seems to lack respect for sport.
North Korea took up Moon’s invitation to participate just before the Olympics start because it aims to open a hole in the web of sanctions imposed by the international community and escape from its isolation.
The agreement included “joint training” at North Korea’s Masik Pass ski resort. The resort was constructed at the prodding of Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea. There is no doubt the resort will be used to boost Kim’s authority.
A joint cultural event will be held at Mt Kumgang in southeast North Korea. Tourist trips from South Korea to the mountain resort were suspended due to the deterioration in bilateral relations. These trips were a precious revenue source for North Korea, so it must have an ulterior motive of this cultural event leading to the resumption of these tourist operations.
Sanctions resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council and independent steps taken by South Korea’s government have squeezed North Korea’s sources of foreign currency revenue. Some observers have suggested money used to pay for participation in events held in North Korea could become a problem as a violation of those sanctions.
Pyongyang has not abandoned its nuclear and missile development programmes. It has refused to hold talks, proposed by Seoul, on its denuclearisation. It has demanded the cancellation of joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea and is trying to drive a wedge between them.
The momentum toward strengthening sanctions on North Korea must not be lost just because of a heightened mood of reconciliation prompted by the Winter Olympics.