Behind the Ivy - Spring 2018

SPRING ISSUE |  BEHIND THE IVY

What role will North Korea play in the Olympics? Photo Soleil Krcmar

C A L L M E M A Y B E

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EL I ZABETH SCHNEKENBURGER

sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The group will be comprised of twenty-two athletes, a cheer squad, a Taekwondo art troupe, and a press corps. The athletes have been confirmed to be competing in three event areas - skiing, ice-skating, and ice hockey - and the North and South Korean athletes will be walking together under one flag. However, it is the women’s ice hockey team that is making history. Because the team will be comprised of both North and South Korean athletes, it will mark the first time the two Koreas have ever joined together to compete in an Olympic event.

In an abandoned village located in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, there exists a phone with two handsets, one red and one green. The top of the phone reads “North-South Korea Direct Phone” and is flanked by two clocks showing the time in each country. Every day since communication between the two nations ended in February 2016, South Korean officials from the Ministry of Unification have picked up the green handset dedicated to outgoing calls at exactly 9am and 4pm every day. North Korea has never answered. However, at 3:30 pm on January 3rd, 2018, the phone rang. South Korea could finally pick up the red handset. No one knows

what was discussed during the twenty-minute call, yet it was followed by another call later that evening and two more the following day. The phone call occurred a few short days after the North Korean President Kim Jong-un announced in his New Year’s Day speech that he would be allowing athletes across the border to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. So, why should you care? It’s just a phone call, right? Wrong. It marked the beginning of discussions between the two countries about the participation of North Korea in the Winter Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepted

This year, North Korea will be