Playing the game? Sport and the two Koreas

Although in 2008 the Olympic flame did pass through the two Koreas, there was no joint entry by the two countries' athletes at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. In the World Cup, qualifying matches between the two Korean teams in 2008 were played in neutral venues because of disputes over flags and anthems. Set against the background of the importance attached to sporting prowess and national image by both Koreas and the faltering attempts since the 1990s to create inter-Korean sporting linkages, the controversies during 2008 show that political posturing in the sporting arena has not disappeared. Despite the ideal that sporting contacts are a way to overcome or at least ameliorate political differences between states and their peoples, in the context of the inter-Korean relationship, it is politics that have been both driving and obstructing sporting exchanges.