ⓒ KBS News

The Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games kicked off on August 18. During the opening ceremony of the sports festival bringing 4.5 billion Asian people together, South and North Korea marched as one, demonstrating their wish for peace for the entire world. But this is not the first Asian Games where South and North Korea became one, moving beyond political ideology. Today, we’ll review the 2002 Busan Asian Games. Back in 2002, relations between South and North Korea quickly froze in the wake of an inter-Korean naval clash. North Korea expressed regret and suggested bilateral ministerial-level talks. At the seventh ministerial meeting that was held in Seoul for three days from August 12, the two sides agreed on North Korea’s participation in the Busan Asian Games. It was the first time for North Korea to take part in an international sports competition to be held in South Korea. Moreover, North Korea decided to send a cheerleading team as well. A 300-member North Korean sports delegation arrived in Gimhae Airport in South Korea in September 23 and 27, and 370 North Korean cheerleaders arrived in Daedaepo Port in Busan on September 28 aboard the North Korean ferry Mangyeongbong. The festival for inter-Korean harmony, namely, the Busan Asian Games, began to heat up. Let’s hear from sports commentator Choi Dong-ho. 

The 2002 Busan Asian Games left a deep impression on South Koreans as North Korean cheerleaders as well as athletes came to South Korea for the first time. In fact, South Korean citizens were not very interested in the games even until the opening ceremony was held. But after the North Korean ferry was anchored in the port in Busan and the cheering squad appeared, the South Korean public suddenly began to pay a great deal of attention to the games. 

South and North Korea have held a number of sports meetings since the National Olympic Committee of North Korea proposed in 1957 to field a unified Korean team for international sporting events. The talks bore fruit after the 1990s. In 1991, the two Koreas formed joint teams at the world championships for table tennis and youth football. Following the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000, the South and the North entered the stadium together during the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in that same year. And in 2002, North Korean athletes and cheerleaders set foot on South Korean soil for the first time since national division to join the international sports competition in Busan. The event proved to be an important bridgehead for inter-Korean sports exchanges. On September 29, 2002, the Busan Asian Games started with a grand opening ceremony. Mr. Choi continues. 

Many Koreans were amazed to see delegations of South and North Korea parading together under the same unification flag during the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The scene was a silent manifestation that the two Koreas are one, although they are divided by different political ideologies. The joint march occurred again at the 2002 Asian Games, this time in South Korea, not in a foreign country, with athletes from the South and North entering the stadium together, hand-in-hand. Many South Koreans couldn’t find the words to describe how moving it was to watch the scene, which didn’t even feel real. Previously, “fear,” “confrontation” or “war” would come to their minds first when they thought of South and North Korea. But when North Korean athletes appeared at the stadium in Busan, along with South Korean players, the audiences were truly impressed. 

As Mr. Choi explained, the joint entrance of athletes from the rival Koreas, the only divided country in the world, showed a message of peace and harmony. When the athletes entered the stadium together in dark blue and white uniforms, the 60-thousand spectators erupted into cheers and gave them a standing ovation. Ha Hyung-zoo, the South Korean judo gold medalist at the 1984 LA Olympics, and Kye Sun-hui, the North Korean female judo champion at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, lit the cauldron together. That was the moment when hope for Korea’s unification was also lit. The lighting of the flame signaled the start of the 16-day Busan Asian Games, where some 9,900 athletes from 44 countries competed. The North Korean cheering group, consisting of a brass band and artists, enthusiastically rooted for athletes from both South and North Korea to create an inter-Korean reconciliatory mood. The North Korean cheerleaders performed tightly synchronized cheers and dances and also showcased their own dazzling shows from time to time. The extraordinary cheerleading team caught the eye of South Korean audiences throughout the games and became the talk of the town. 

North Korea selects young women artists as the members of its cheerleading group. Their striking beauty attracted so much attention in South Korea. For South Korean citizens at the time, it was hard to imagine North Korean cheerleaders staging a brilliant performance along with the brass band in South Korea, although it has become a familiar scene now. Their singing, dancing and cheers were something very different, fresh and even shocking. They became hugely popular among South Koreans, creating a great sensation. Local media agencies here even sent reporters to exclusively cover the North Korean cheering squad. 

The great interest in the North Korean cheering group was more than simple curiosity but encouraged South Korean spectators to join the cheerleaders at the stadium, leading the Busan Asian Games to a unified Asiad, both in name and reality. Here is Busan University of Foreign Studies professor Park In-ho, who carried out joint cheering with the North Korean cheerleaders at the time as the head of supporters for North Korean athletes. 

For joint cheering, we picked “Our Wish is Unification” and “Spring in My Hometown” for fight songs. We chanted a particular phrase when rooting, waving the Korean Unification Flag. In the process, I immediately felt connected with the North Koreans and realized once again that we were one Korean people. At the stadium, the South Korean audiences and the North Korean cheerleaders were eager to root together, purely voluntarily, although no one told them to do that. I became confident that a sporting event could bring the two Koreas together and promote harmony and unification. 

The Busan Asian Games came to a successful end on October 14. One day after the closing ceremony, a farewell ceremony for the North Korean cheering squad took place at Dadaepo Port. The two sides experienced reconciliation and peace only briefly, but the precious memory would linger in their minds for a long time. Indeed, that is the power of sports. Here again is Mr. Choi. 

When athletes from South and North Korea march together or play as a team, at first they feel kind of shy and awkward. But when parting with each other, they shed tears. Watching the scene, many South Koreans, who have rarely thought about inter-Korean relations before, acutely felt that South and North Koreans are of the same blood and pondered unification with North Korea once again. There’s nothing like sports for creating such a wonderful, emotional effect. 

Through sports, people in South and North Korea can be reconciled with each other and feel closer to one another. At the ongoing Jakarta- Palembang Asian Games, the two Koreas are participating in joint teams in women’s basketball as well as rowing and canoe events. No doubt, they are taking a big step toward peace on their divided peninsula.