[Editorial] Forming a Single Team for Asian Games

North and South Korea have agreed in principle to sending a joint team to the Asian Games being held in December of next year in Doha, Qatar. If they follow through it will be the first time there is a single "Korean team" at an international combined sports event. The decision already makes it more likely that they will participate as a single unified team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Forming a single team is not a simple task. Each side performs at different levels, so it will not be easy to put together a team that is satisfactory to both. There will be real obstacles as they get to the working-level business of choosing team members. Just evaluating the skills and potential of the athletes on both sides will be complicated. But North and South both have a strong determination to make it happen, so in our view there is nothing that cannot be resolved through close cooperation and the making of concessions.

The role of the working-level organizing group that is about to meet will be important. We hope that the representatives from both sides will commence on their work with a perspective on the big picture of how to elevate the joint team's ability to perform and not compete over which side gets to send more athletes. It would be good for them to decide on the specific category teams they can agree on first, and then work gradually from there. Good examples can be found in the winning joint women's team sent to the 1991 table tennis championships in Chiba, Japan, and the joint football team sent to the world youth football championships in Portugal the same year, which made it to the top 8.

The symbolic significance of a joint team is no less important than its performance. It will contribute to reconciliation and a lessening of social differences between North and South, and it will be an important opportunity to bring relations to a higher level. Just as East and West Germany widened the road to reunification by sending a joint team to the Olympics during the Cold War, North and South Korea must lay the cornerstone of reunification by forming a single team.

The Hankyoreh, 10 September 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]