2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games

2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games

Seoul, South Korea — If the plan pushes through, a unified Korean team will march as one at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. South Korean City of Pyeongchang has recently won the bid to host the 2018 Winter Games.

In 2007, North Korea publicly supported the bid of Pyeongchang to host the 2014 Winter Games although it lost the final bid. Right after the announcement of Pyeongchang as the victor among the three bidder cities, news immediately spread across Korea that resulted to a nationwide rejoicing.

North and South Korea surprised the world when they marched as a unified team during the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia and Athens, Greece.

However, in the last 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the recent Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, the world did not see the unified Korean team. Two different teams marched at the podium.

The relationship of the two countries has been recently tainted due to political and economic disagreements.

South Korea’s ruling party including the opposition have both agreed to field a unified team for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and a plan of training both country’s athletes jointly.

In a recent poll in South Korea, 57.6 percent of all respondents supported the idea of a unified Korean Team while respondents opposing the idea constitute 30.5 percent.

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games hopes to become a catalyst for change in uniting the Korean peninsula once again.The survey also showed 73.5 percent of the 506 South Korean respondents have disagreed in the idea of North Korea to co-host the games with the South.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Saturday July 16 2011, 4:24 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0