Unity soccer match between North, South Korea

“A crowd of more than 60,000 South Koreans erupted into cheers of ‘We are one!’ as a group of visiting North Koreans entered the World Cup soccer stadium here for a match celebrating liberation from Japanese rule,” according to an article in the Aug. 16 Wall Street Journal, datelined Seoul.

This overwhelmingly favorable reaction to the North Korean delegation came at a “unity” soccer match between the North and South Korean soccer teams in which neither side displayed their national flag—only “unity” flags were flown.

This sentiment is partly the explanation for the growing rift between the South Korean government and the U.S. government on the question of the nuclear rights of the North.

The WSJ article reported, “South Korea’s top official on relations with the North, Unification Minister Chung Dong Young, said last week, ‘Our position is that North Korea has a general right to peaceful use of nuclear energy, for agricultural, medical and power-generation purposes. In this our position differs from that of Washington.’”

But sections of the South Korean masses go much further than the Unification Minister. “Yoon Yong Wan, a 37-year-old repairman for Kia Motors in Seoul, said he hopes ‘North Korea can build in [intercontinental ballistic missile] that can carry a warhead to the heart of Washington. It would be good for the balance of power.’”

The WSJ dispatch concluded, “While that is an extreme view, it isn’t entirely uncommon. A poll in early August by Chosun Ilbo, a conservative South Korean newspaper, and Gallup found 66 percent of South Koreans age 16 to 25 would side with North Korea in a war between the U.S. and the North. Just 28 percent would side with the U.S.”