A platform for international relations
With the end of the Cold War, the Olympic Games Seoul 1988 were the ideal stage to help reunite the world through sport.
For the first time since 1976, the East and West were competing against each other in a peaceful competition. The Olympic Games provided an international platform which led to new diplomatic and economic relations. Of the 159 participating countries, 24 did not have diplomatic relations with South Korea prior to the Games. The value of Korea’s trade relations with Eastern and Central European countries, such as Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Poland, increased 80 per cent over the year prior to the Games, amounting to USD 3.65 billion. New Korean trade offices were inaugurated in China and the Soviet Union, resulting in economic benefits for Korean corporations. In 1988, the number of Korean businessmen visiting communist countries in search of new opportunities was 14 times higher than in the previous year. The diplomatic relations put in place by the Korean government and companies led to an increase in exports.
Although the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea did not participate, the 1988 Games initiated various attempts to improve the relations between both countries. These small steps bore fruit at the Olympic Games Sydney 2000, as the two Korea teams marched together, and again at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, when unified Korean teams competed together in the women’s ice hockey event.