Sports & Politics Intersect: North and South Korea planning historic joint Olympics bid

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This week in sports and politics history: Looking back at the start of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul

" [The] North Korean regime we face today — isolated, belligerent, desperately pumping up its dangerous nuclear program as its only leverage on the world stage — was born, in part, in 1988. At the Olympics." - Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of history and East Asian Studies at Oberlin College. 

As noted above, earlier this week, the leaders of North and South Korea got together to discuss a possible roadway to peace between them, as the neighboring countries have officially been at war since 1950. While there are still several key steps left before achieving peace in the peninsula, progress does appear to have been made. These latest developments are a stark contrast from where tensions were during the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea.

That the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1988 Games to Seoul was seen as a big coup by the South Korean government — the sporting event would serve as a "we've arrived" type of party for the struggling nation. Not to be outdone, Kim Il Sung (grandfather of Kim Jong Un) pushed hard for the games to be hosted by both countries. There were initial negotiations, but ultimately they fell apart. Rather than taking the L, Kim Il Sung announced that his country would be boycotting, and he asked the Soviet Union to back North Korea in its protest. That didn't happen, which South Korea saw as reason enough to end the negotiations. Humiliated, North Korea sought other means to derail the Olympics, namely by blowing up, in midair, a Korean Air plane headed to Seoul on Nov. 29, 1987. The bombing didn't come as much of a surprise to at least one entity — the CIA. According to recently declassified records, the agency expressed concern that North Korea would try something.

The state-sponsored act of terror was immediately decried by the international community. North Korea tripled down — it hosted its own version of the Games, and isolated from the world, embarked on its journey to obtain a nuclear weapon.

The Games were a major political success for South Korea. For starters, it earned the country the support of the majority of the world, including the Soviet Bloc countries, which were forced to recognize its sovereignty. Just as importantly, North Korea's actions gave its southern neighbors a perfect distraction for all the human rights atrocities it committed prior to the start of the 1988 Olympics.