Mike Pence Disrespects Koreans and Ratchets Up American Threats at Winter Olympics

February 12, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader:

One of the most beautiful and moving Olympic opening ceremonies I can remember began in PyeongChang, South Korea, with the united Korean (North Korea and South Korea) Olympic athletes entering the arena together.

A united Korean Olympic team was a show of unity between the two adversarial countries. The Korea Times described it this way:

It was the unrehearsed joint parade of the two Koreas that possibly best expressed the theme of South Korea’s first Winter Olympics....

The joint delegation of 46 North Koreans and 219 South Koreans received thunderous applause from 35,000 spectators as they marched together inside the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium under a unified flag.

Among the athletes were 35 women’s ice hockey players—23 South Koreans and 12 North Koreans—from the first unified Korean Olympic team.

The athletes mingled together, smiling and waving blue-and-white Korean Peninsula flags as they paraded to “Arirang,” a popular folk song in both Koreas, behind joint flag bearers (one from North Korea and one from South Korea).

As the united team marched in, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence refused to stand to honor the athletes of the host country, while it appeared that the rest of those in his VIP box stood. Pence and his wife were seated in the box with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong; South Korean President Moon Jae-in and wife, Kim Jung-sook; along with other high ranking IOC (International Olympic Committee) members and VIPs from 21 countries. Later reports stated that Shinzo Abe also did not stand.

Two hockey players, one from North Korea and another from South Korea, took the Olympic torch to South Korean figure skating superstar Yuna Kim to light the Olympic cauldron.

Through all this, Mike Pence sat. Pence’s refusal to stand for the united Korean Olympic team was a show of disrespect for the Korean people. Even more, it was a message to South Korea, the host country, that they better get in line with how the U.S. wants to deal with North Korea.

It has been obvious that Mike Pence’s role at the Olympics was to ratchet up America’s dangerous assault on North Korea. He said he was going to announce the harshest economic sanctions against North Korea. He brought Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto Warmbier, who died after his release from imprisonment in North Korea, as his guest to send the message that North Korea is a villainous state. On the opening day of the Olympics, Pence denounced North Korea for holding a military parade the day before the games opened, calling it “an ongoing provocation”—this as the U.S. continues to amass a genocidal arsenal on North Korea’s doorstep (see "Winter Olympics: Trump: 'We Think the Olympics Will Go Very Nicely, and After that, Who Knows?'"). All of this was part of the Trump/Pence regime’s ongoing preparations for a possible war, and its stand that the total annihilation of North Korea is “one of the options that is on the table.”

As the opening ceremonies came to an end, four Korean singers took center stage and sang John Lennon’s “Imagine.” At the end, they sang the last verse over and over again:

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.

Mike Pence’s spirit and actions at the Olympics ran directly counter to these sentiments and point to the grave danger the Trump/Pence regime represents to the billions who share those hopes for global peace and understanding—not war!

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