 In an episode of the popular K-drama Crash Landing on You, we see a group of North Koreans sneaking into South Korea, and they do so by going undercover as athletes, participating in the military world games. White flags, embellished with a light blue symbol of the Korean Peninsula, are waved welcoming the North Korean athletes as they get off their bus. This flag is known as the Korean Unification Flag, and it represents the symbolic union between North and South Korea and the world of athletics. Because if there's one thing that can bring countries together, even in times of war, it's sports. Korea as a whole had a few shaky years in recent history. It's no surprise that Korea has been split since 1945, and the only Korean Olympians to ever win a medal while Korea was still united were Song Ki-chang and Nam Sun-hyun, who won gold and bronze at the marathon, respectively. This was during the 1936 Berlin Games, the same famous Olympic Games hosted by Adolf Hitler himself, where African American Jesse Owens won four gold medals and destroyed the racial stereotypes of Nazi Germany. During these same Olympics, as these two Koreans stood on the medal stand, they cried. Not because they were overcome with feelings of joy from their victory, but because of sadness and frustration. The frustration that, while they won the gold and bronze medals, they did not win it for Korea. Officially, they won it for Japan, because at the time, the Empire of Japan was the colonial ruler of Korea. They were ashamed to bring glory to the conquerors they despised so much. They were forced to compete for the Japanese Emperor in Japanese uniforms under Japanese names, Song Ki-tae and Nam Shorye. The anthem that played in the flag that was raised was not that of Korea, but that of the Empire of Japan. A Korean wouldn't win another gold medal until the 1972 Munich Games, where North Korean Lee Ho-jun placed first in shooting, and South Korea didn't win its first gold medal until the 1976 Montreal Games, where Yang Jun-mo, who I talked about in a previous video, won the gold medal in wrestling. However, this victory was never forgotten. Song Ki-tae, despite being born in modern-day Shiniju, North Korea, became a national hero in South Korea after its independence. He became a coach for many other famous South Korean marathon runners, and his story came full circle when, in the 1998 Summer Olympics in Seoul, he was given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony with the title 1936 Gold Medalist. Not a gold medalist for South Korea, or North Korea, but Korea. Politics aside, this feeling of unity has always been important. It's no secret that reunification has always been the goal of each country. With each of their governments having a department specifically focused on reunification efforts, South Korea has their Ministry of Reunification, and North Korea has their Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. Each nation believes that they are the one true Korea, and that one day they will bring the other nation back to the light and become one. Conflicts and beliefs have always prevented the two countries from seeing eye to eye on the political stage. But in athletics, they have the chance to put differences aside and compete as equals. That's why I think it's so important that this flag exists. It represents unity between the North and the South, despite their differences. While it's normal in sporting events to see North and South Korea competing separately, on very rare occasions they have competed together as one team. The flag was actually created in 1990 in preparation for the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. A plan for a unified Korean team was conceived, but never came to fruition. The first time in history that North and South Korea competed as one came the following year in 1991 at the World Tennis Table Championships, where North and South Koreans made up a men's team and a women's team. While the men's team was defeated by Sweden in the quarterfinals, the women's team made history and defied all odds by ending China's consecutive 8-win streak spanning from 1978 to 1989. This legendary team became the first team ever to win gold, not for South Korea, not for North Korea, but for an independent, unified Korea. The same year at the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship, North and South Korea once again competed as one, but they were defeated by Brazil in the quarterfinals. Both times, Korea's anthem was Arirang, a 600-year-old traditional Korean folk song considered to be the anthem of a unified Korea, and very important culturally to both North and South Korea. Feelings of unity were strong, but due to some government officials having strong feelings against the symbol of reunification, we didn't see this flag officially used in a sporting event again until much, much later. During the 2018 Pyongchang Winter Games, during the Parade of Nations, North and South Korean athletes made history once again as they marched together under the unification flag and once again using Arirang as their anthem. However, this was nothing more than symbolic. As North and South Korean teams competed as separate national teams for every sport like usual. Well, every sport except for women's ice hockey. This was the first and only time a unified Korean team was fielded for the Olympics. 35 athletes, 23 South Koreans and 12 North Koreans. Unfortunately, they ended up not winning a single game, scoring only a single goal and placed 8th. The same year, under some bizarre circumstances, the International Table Tennis Federation allowed North and South Korea to field two separate teams for the World Table Tennis Championships, but then later allowed them to combine the teams for the semifinals. They won the bronze medal. Another event during the same year was the 2018 Korea Open, also for table tennis, where North Korean Cha Hyo Shin and South Korean Jang Woo Jin won the mixed doubles title, marking the first international event won by an inter-Korean pair. Apparently, 2018 was a great year because representatives from both South Korea and North Korea agreed to march together under a unified flag and formed combined teams to compete in the 2018 Asian Games. The unified team once again marched to the tune of Arirang. This time for men and women's canoeing and women's basketball. And in the Asian Paragames, men's table tennis and men's swimming. And finally, in 2019, the World Men's Handball Championship, where the team qualified as a wild card and ended up placing 22nd out of 24 teams. So, for the record, that is a total of 8 times in history that Korea has fielded a unified Korean team made up of North and South Koreans. That's it. Twice in 1991, five times in 2018, and once in 2019. And while they also waived the unified Korean flag at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, and Turn in 2006, the actual teams remained separate. Problems between the countries prevented the use in Beijing in 2008. Similar plans for the use of the flag were scrapped at the 2018 East Asian Judo Championships and the 2018 Paralympics, as well as a planned unified team for the 2019 FIBA Women's Asia Cup. Well, what about today? Have relations between North and South Korea gotten better? The answer is… maybe. There have been some very historical firsts in recent years. The first time a North Korean leader entered South Korea, met with South Korean officials, Kim Jong-un met President Moon Jae-in, a North Korean leader meeting an American president, propaganda on both sides stopped being broadcasted, a pledge to work together towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, agreements to work together to connect and modernize railways, a restoration of full communication between the two militaries, South Korean trains passing the DMZ and stopping at North Korean train station, reunions of families that haven't seen each other since the Korean War. A South Korean president gave a speech in North Korea to the public, and as a qualifier for the FIFA World Cup, the first football match in 30 years between North and South Korea taking place in Pyongyang. And heck, Red Velvet performed for Kim Jong-un himself. When President Moon Jae-in's mother died on October 29th, 2019, the next day, Kim Jong-un sent a handwritten letter to the president expressing his deep condolences and consolation. For all intents and purposes, it looks like, despite their differences, Kim and Moon have a close, professional and respectful relationship. It looks like things will get better, and I'm sure we're all hoping for the better. But the past has proven that the things that the supreme leaders of North Korea say and the things they do don't always match. So who knows if we're closer to reunification today than we were 20 years ago, or even 30 years ago. However, one thing that we can hope to look forward to is Tokyo. Currently in the talks for the International Olympic Committee is whether or not North Korea and South Korea can feel the unified Korean team for the Tokyo Games, something for which the Olympic committees from both countries are actually striving heavily. The formal request sent to the IOC is for judo, rowing, women's basketball and women's hockey, but the talks are still ongoing, which leaves the door open for the possibility of additional events. While no one in the entire world can answer the question of if or when Korea will be reunited, it seems like the two nations are becoming more open to the idea of a unified Korean team more today than ever before. We can all expect to see those Korean athletes side by side marching and competing together under that white flag next year in Tokyo. And who knows, maybe one day our children, or our grandchildren, or our great-grandchildren will live to see the day the two Koreas become one. Maybe one day, crash-lining on you, a story about putting aside differences and coming together, will be analogous not only for two star-crossed lovers, but for Korea itself. Who knows?