For a brief moment, Korea was one: tears over Olympic march

September 17, 2000
Web posted at: 6:10 AM HKT (2210 GMT)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Watching athletes from North and South Korea march together behind a single flag in the Olympics, Choi Dong-ok could hardly fight back the tears.

"It was really dandy for those young people to walk together, hand in hand," said Choi, 73, who has family he hasn't seen in 50 years living in the communist North. "I only wished the same thing could happen to the other people, to families like mine."

Millions of South Koreans watched on television as 180 athletes from both sides of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the world's most heavily guarded border, marched together at the opening of the Sydney Olympics.

"For the brief five minutes the athletes walked together, Korea was a one and single nation," said Seoul's daily Kyunghyang Shinmun.

While much of the world cheered the symbolic moment, North Korea's state-controlled media has not reported it, or any other Olympic news, said Seoul's Yonhap news agency, which monitors Northern news media.

Despite recent, cautious overtures to the outside world, the North's communist regime keeps a tight control on foreign news.

The joint march was a staged event, heavy with symbolism. Korean athletes had never marched together in the Olympics. It was the latest step toward reconciliation between the two Koreas.

All major South Korean dailies carried front page photos of the athletes marching behind a "unification" flag that bore a blue image of the Korean Peninsula on a white background, with no border line showing. A name plate said simply, "Korea."

Despite strong wind and rain, Seoul pedestrians crowded around large electronic signboards to watch the event. Others saw it on television sets in bus and train stations.

The scene was both joyous and poignant for millions of Koreans permanently separated from their families after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an uneasy truce.

"To see South and North Korea enter as one made me feel that reunification is near," said Han Jae-il, 82, one of 100 South Koreans allowed to visit North Korean relatives in August.

North Korea sent an equal number of people to Seoul for similar reunions, part of a deal struck at a historic summit in June.

At the summit, leaders of both sides agreed to work toward reconciliation, although problems remain.

Contact between North and South Koreans is still outlawed, so there can be no letters, phone calls or faxes between citizens of the two nations. But Seoul is pushing for North Korea to allow letters.

"Marching together is good, but for me, news about being able to exchange letters is much better," said Han Tae-hoon, 76, who has a younger brother living in the North.

After five decades, South and North Korea seem worlds apart. The impoverished North is ruled by a totalitarian leader who depends on international aid to feed his people. The capitalist South is the world's 13th largest economic power, with postwar generations who hardly care about national unification.

"Local media say that thousands of foreigners cried at the scene. It's hard to believe because it didn't seem that emotional," said Maeng Joon-ho, 29, a Seoul student.

But Choi, who recently learned from a relative living in the United States that his parents had died in the North, said he virtually forced his children to watch the ceremony.

"People like me are a dying breed," Choi said. "The least I can do is to remind young people that we are still a divided nation yet to be reunited."

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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