Seoul says North Korea's Olympic participation will aid peace and ease tensions
Source: Reuters
JANUARY 20, 2018 / 5:15 AM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO
Yuna Park
SEOUL (Reuters) - Seoul welcomed confirmation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that 22 North Korean athletes would compete in next month’s Winter Olympics, saying on Sunday it would aid peace and the easing of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
In the first of a series of preparatory visits, North Korean music and arts officials arrived in South Korea on Sunday to inspect sites for performances during the Olympics. “North Korea’s participation in the Olympics will be a catalyst for building peace and easing tensions on the Korean peninsula,” said South Korea’s presidential Blue House in a statement released on Sunday.
The visit to the South marks the first by North Koreans since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office in May last year and sought to re-engage with the North.
“President Moon has previously stressed that the Pyeongchang Olympics should be an important turning point in solving North Korea’s missile issues,” the Blue House statement said.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-northkorea/seoul-says-north-koreas-olympic-participation-will-aid-peace-and-ease-tensions-idUSKBN1F90CS?il=0
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Tensions are eased.
Now S. Korea doesn't just have Kim to its north with millions of malnourished people in an authoritarian police state.
S. Korean has Kim to its north with millions of malnourished people in an authoritarian police state with nuclear weapons that Kim's threatened to use.
But at least Kim's been rewarded for being the Awesome Leader that he is.
(Thirty years ago it must have been I was told in ed psych that there were four kinds of actions in managing students. Two of them involved handing out punishment or reward. Except that the teacher doesn't decide what's a punishment on reward, and the most serious mistake a teacher or parent can make is deciding that s/he knows which is which. Telling a kid he's done a great job can be punishment; sending a kid to in-school suspension can be a reward. For this, the only perspective that matters is the student's. We rewarded Kim, then rewarded Kim, then rewarded Kim. And we keep getting results we don't like, because we think we punished him, then punished him, then punished him. And now, because he's backed down from some of his bellicosity, we're rewarding him. At the very least, we should put his behavior on extinction. Which means "if you're not going to punish it, at least stop rewarding it."
