Staying with the Olympics,....
Despite having to deal with a fickle guest from north of the border,... a whole host of high profile figures from around the world are scheduled to attend the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Games.
Moon Connyoung reports. Sports often bring a certain degree of drama... and perhaps never more so than when the two Koreas - rivals of over six decades - come together under the name of sports... in the spirit of the Olympics.
And, international sporting 'mega-events' like the Olympic Games have stretched beyond sports and into the realm of diplomacy... often times, summit diplomacy.
With South Korean President Moon Jae-in about to kick off his first multilateral diplomacy at home... yes, on the occasion of the 2018 Winter Olympics Games in PyeongChang... the Blue House, on Monday, unveiled the list of world leaders visiting the nation next month.
"We expect some 2-thousand-9-hundred-43 athletes from 92 countries to participate in the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang next month. This is the largest in size for a Winter Olympics. We're also expecting 26 statesmen from 21 nations to visit South Korea."
President Moon's liberal government is hoping that the North's Olympic participation could mark the beginning of something bigger, of something beyond just sport.
"Although there remains the challenge of denuclearizing North Korea, South Korea has been hoping to take PyeongChang Olympics as an opportunity to let as many world leaders know as possible and garner support from the international community."
So, it's certainly a disappointment for the Moon administration to see that just one head of state from the four key regional powers will be in attendance as it would have definitely liked to see a stronger showing... to set the diplomatic stage to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Nonetheless, the South Korean leader will take this opportunity to both host and flex his diplomatic muscle.
(STAND-UP)
"President Moon will host a reception for leaders visiting South Korea for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on the ninth of February... before the opening ceremony. He will also hold separate meetings with 14 world leaders including the presidents of Germany, Slovenia, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
And, there have been media reports that a Moon, Abe summit is in the works for the opening day, which if realized will be the first since a diplomatic dispute broke out over a controversial 2015 agreement over Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women.
Moon Connyoung, Arirang News, the Blue House."
