The US has said it hopes that North Korea’s decision to participate in the Winter Olympics, along with South Korea, will give it a “taste of freedom” and its leadership would see the value in ending its international isolation over its nuclear ambitions.
For the first time in over a decade, the two Koreas yesterday agreed to march together under a single flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics Games, to be held in Pyeongchang in South Korea later this year, in a show of unity and further sign of easing tensions on the peninsula amid growing diplomatic negotiations between the two countries. They also decided to field a united women’s ice hockey team.
The two nations have previously been represented under the same flag at an international sporting event at the 2006 Winter Olympics and at the 2007 Asian Winter Games.
“We see this as an opportunity for the regime to see the value of ending its international isolation via denuclearisation.