Korean Olympians unite to surprise the world at 2018 Winter Games opening ceremony in Pyeongchang
Biggest event in history welcomes 2,900 athletes from 92 countries including one-person teams from Hong Kong and Tonga
In an extraordinary show of unexpected unity, North and South Korea sat side by side Friday night under exploding fireworks that represented peace, not destruction, as the 2018 Winter Olympics opened on a Korean Peninsula riven by generations of anger and suspicion.
The sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, shook hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in while they watched an elaborate show of light, sound and human performance. Its aim: to tell the epic story of Korea – not North, not South, but the entire land.
After years of frustration, billions of dollars and a nagging national debate about their worth, the opening ceremonies took place before a world watching the moment not only for its athletic significance and global spectacle, but for clues about what the political future of the peninsula could hold. A delegation from North Korea, dressed in identical garb, watched from an upper deck of the stadium.
Then began the Olympic tradition that takes place at every Games – the march of athletes from the world’s many nations, girded against a frigid Korean night and temperatures that dipped below freezing with biting winds.
The political intruded on the games at several turns Friday as South Korea put on a frigid show for the world that’s meant to display a new-found desire to cooperate with rival North Korea along with Seoul’s stunning rise from poverty and war to Asian powerhouse.