ROK President Moon Jae-in speaks of the PyeongChang Games and “snowman of peace”
On the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in spoke of the contributions of the Games serving as a “snowman of peace”.
Through his personal Twitter account, President Moon says: “The small snowball that we have been rolling together up to the present has become a snowman of peace. The joint inter-Korean ice hockey team has helped South and North Korea form unified teams in various other sports such as canoeing, handball and table tennis.”
President Moon adds: “There have been three summits between the two Koreas, and the historic North Korea-US summit last year is leading to a second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. All of these comprise steps towards peace, and all are also miraculous gifts that PyeongChang gave us all.”
He also speaks of the long-term peace process. “Peace doesn’t come overnight. Just as athletes train repeatedly together in sometimes tedious exercises over a long time for teamwork in order to achieve results without any regrets, peace requires such processes as well. Peace will be ours only if we constantly talk about it and fine-tune our minds and daily lives to suit an era of peace. It seems that the loud chants and enthusiasm that once filled PyeongChang can still be felt.”
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach recently spoke of the IOC’s role in the peace process on the peninsula. “We have seen that the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 were opening the doors for political talks, and since then different summits have been taking place.”
President Bach added: “In fact, the two leaders, from South Korea, President Moon, and from North Korea, Chairman Kim, have asked us to continue to support their talks of rapprochement through actions in sport. And this is what we are doing, so in just a couple of days, we will meet the two governments and the two National Olympic Committees, to see how the IOC can contribute to peace on the Korean peninsula and in the world.”
The IOC will convene a working meeting with delegations from the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea on 15 February to discuss further sports cooperation.
President Moon ended his statement by saying: “Even though the Winter Olympics will continue to come around every four years, people around the world will remember the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games as an extraordinary event that opened the gate for peace and is forever synonymous with PyeongChang and the freezing cold of Gangwon Province.”