남북체육교류의 활성화 방안 모색

Abstract

The history of South Korea-North Korea Sports Exchange has had a lot of ups and downs since the division of the nation. In this study, adequate measures to activate South Korea-North Korea Sports Exchange were examined through the analysis of the important issues of each period. This paper employed the method of literature review and the following are the results of the analysis. First, sports can play a pivotal role in improving the relationship between South Korea and North Korea, recovering the homogeneity of the nation, and forming the unity between the two countries. In this regard, as in other exchange programs between South Korea and North Korea, sports exchange should have the process of gradual development and maturation. Second, sports could provide much-needed opportunities at a time when political and diplomatic exchange was simply impossible in the Cold War period. Likewise, sports can present an easier access to the contact between the two countries than any other field. Third, sports can become a driving force behind the breakdown of the barrier that has been built up since the division of the nation, and thus, we can move toward openness and reconciliation. Fourth, the recovery of the homogeneity of the nation through pure sports exchange is the key to the acceleration of permanent settlement of peace and unification. Lastly, South Korea-North Korea Sports Exchange in the Korean Peninsula, which is the only divided country in the world, can be a question of vital importance to the issue of national reconciliation. The quest for the possible items of sports should be carried out with the vision of unification in the 21st century in mind.