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Members of the 2018 Asian Games One Korea Joint Cheering Squad Organizing Committee hold up Korean Peninsula flags at a press conference in Seoul on Aug. 13 (Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)
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The squad of 140 will join 300 overseas Koreans in Jakarta and Palembang
A joint cheering squad has been assembled to root for the unified inter-Korean team at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games opening on Aug. 18. The “2018 Asian Games One Korea Joint Cheering Squad Organizing Committee,” which includes The Hankyoreh Unification and Culture Foundation and the South Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration, announced the launch of the “One Korea Cheering Squad” in a press conference that morning at Conference House Dalgaebi in Seoul’s Jung (Central) district. “Just as the world press cited South and North’s joint march as the most moving moment of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, so meetings between South and North have always left an impression that exceeded expectations,” the organizing committee said. “To create a festival where South and North will meet and mingle overseas for the first time since the Panmunjeom Declaration [on Apr. 27], we are establishing the One Korea Cheering Squad to send to Indonesia,” it added. Jeong Cheol-woo, 26, a representative of Gyeore Hana, is joining the Jakarta cheering squad after previously taking part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. “I’ll never forgot shouting ‘We are one’ with athletes and citizens from North Korea at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,” he said. “I hope the currents of peace continue to flow at these Asian Games,” he added. Kim Su-jeong, a 20-year-old Korea Aerospace University student also selected for the squad, read a statement to the press as representative at the press conference. “The competitions by the unified inter-Korean team are more than just sports, but a process of moving toward reconciliation and reunification,” Kim said. “One Korea’s joint cheering is also a process of interchange, cooperation, and solidarity among the athletes, overseas Koreans, and South and North Koreans,” she added. The cheering squad officially launched on Aug. 13 includes 40 cheerleaders and 100 members who will be staying in Indonesia from Aug. 17 to 20. As the first advance party, they will be joining over 300 locally assembled overseas Korean cheerleaders to root for the unified women’s basketball team in their match. They also plan to welcome the jointly marching South and North Korean athletes with the Korean Peninsula flag at the opening ceremony. In addition to cheering for the South and North Korean athletes at major events, other plans include a One Korea Festival event with local overseas Koreans. The organizing committee plans to send a second “focused cheering squad” on Aug. 28 to carry on the cheerleading through the closing ceremony on Sept. 2. By Choi Min-young, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
