With all the political and social tension brewing between North Korea, South Korea and the United States, some North Korean athletes will likely participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics.  South Korea and North Korea have discussed forming a joint team for the first time since 1991.  The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, which is located in South Korea.  The proposal is still in the works, as of now, and North Korea has yet to respond to the offer made by South Korea.  North and South Korean officials will continue to discuss the proposal up until the start of the winter Olympics.  The 2018 Winter Olympics are set to start February 9, 2018, and will end February 25.

       

Korean officials will meet on January 20 to discuss the logistics of how they should represent their country when the time comes.  The International Olympics Committee will discuss the number of athletes Korea may have participate, how large their delegation should be and where the Korean flag should be displayed during ceremonies.  If the proposal is accepted by North Korea, this will be the first time since 1991 that Korea has fielded a joint team, as mentioned.  The last time this was done, North and South Korea joined teams at the World Table Tennis Championships.

       

This will be an interesting event if it does come to fruition, seeing as the two sides are technically still at war with each other.  This has the potential to be a way to reduce political and social tensions.  The two sides of Korea have not competed under the same flag in major international sporting events since the end of World War 2.  Although they represent two different sides, North and South, Korean attendees have been known to cheer for both sides competing, despite the tensions.  

       

Although they are trying to have a joint team, North and South Korea will also send their own athletes separately to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics.  Kim Eun-Jung will bypass the South Korean national team and represent her country’ curling team. Ryan Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik, an ice skating pair, are set to compete in figure skating for North Korea this Olympics.  They were not supposed to be competing, however, due to North Korea missing the deadline for registering athletes.  That is expected to be overlooked, which gives them a chance to compete.

       

With Ryan Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik being some of North Korea’s top athletes, many say that North Korea has entered the Olympics with no star athlete to represent them.  It is unclear at the moment how many athletes North Korea will send to the games, or how well they will compete.  Stay tuned as the world will see how the Korean joint fielded team will play out.  There are many more athletes from these countries that may join the team throughout the week and into February.