Sport struggles to bridge Korean divide

By Peter Rutherford

SEOUL (Reuters) - While ping pong diplomacy worked wonders for China-U.S. relations, sport and politics have made for uncomfortable bedfellows on the Korean peninsula.

A half-century has passed since armistice brought the 1950-53 Korean conflict to a close but despite a significant thaw in relations in recent years the prospects for reunification of the capitalist South and communist North remain remote.

Efforts to harness the Olympics as a tool for reconciliation have met with some success and the two Koreas should once again march under a single flag at the Beijing opening ceremony on August 8, though they were unable to thrash out an agreement to compete as a joint team.

At other sporting events, progress has been patchy.

On June 22, a soccer World Cup qualifier between the two passed off without incident in a genuinely warm atmosphere in Seoul but three months earlier their first game had been moved from Pyongyang to Shanghai due to a diplomatic row.

North Korea refused to play the South's national anthem or raise its flag, forcing FIFA to step in and switch the match to a neutral venue.

For the athletes, political issues should be a secondary consideration to success, said South Korea's most successful female archer Kim Soo-nyung.

Kim, who earned four gold medals between 1988 and 2000, faced a North Korean for the individual archery bronze in Sydney at a time when relations between Seoul and Pyongyang were improving.

"There was talk about whether I should let her win," she told Reuters. "If politics was the main priority I guess I could have.

"But what matters in sport is the result. I did my best as an athlete, won the bronze and the North Korean didn't win anything. That's sport."

SYMBOLIC GESTURES

The two Koreas have found it easier to compromise on the Olympic stage and analysts say even symbolic sporting gestures could reap rewards given the current state of North-South relations.

Pyongyang has delivered particularly stinging criticism of the South's new conservative president, Lee Myung-bak.

"North and South Korea marching together at opening ceremonies might be symbolic but with tension running so high between the two governments now the march at the Beijing Games may even play a role in improving ties," said Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea expert at Korea University.

The Olympics have no equal in terms of profile and prestige, focusing the attention of the world on the host nation.