Whichever way you cut it, a US first strike against North Korea would almost certainly trigger major war on the Korean peninsula, with a high risk of escalation to full-scale nuclear conflict.
North Korean cheerleaders holding the unified Korea flag during the Summer Universiade 2003 in South Korea.
EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT
A delicate truce between North and South Korea has been reached in the run up to the Winter Olympics. It’s a high profile win for an event which is struggling to remain relevant.
North and South Korean officials meet with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in Lausanne on January 20.
Laurent Gillieron/EPA
In a sporting diplomatic coup, North and South Korea will march under a unified flag at Pyeongchang 2018.
Local residents holding Chinese and Olympic flags attend a rehearsal in Chongli county of Zhangjiakou ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Reuters/Jason Lee
Sporting extravaganzas are a way for globalising cities in emerging market economies to try and play the “modernity game”. But they don’t make the rules, and so they can never “win”.
Talks between North and South Korea have led to the rogue North agreeing to send a delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Reuters
North Korea sending a delegation to this year’s Winter Olympics in South Korea may be a global shadow puppet show – or it might help thaw the frozen relations between the two countries.
Tokyo turns out for its returning athletes after the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Reuters
Whether it’s items in a shop, potential speed-dating matches or athletes competing one after another, the order in which they’re presented affects our judgments.
For Rio de Janeiro and for Brazil, these Olympic Games arrived at the worst possible time.
Reuters/Bruno Kelly
Instead of showcasing a rising global power with a booming economy, the 2014 Games put a spotlight on Brazil’s most serious economic recession since the 1930s, along with a host of social problems.
Jim Thorpe and Ben Johnson were both banned from the Olympics. But if each had played at different points in history, they would have been allowed to compete.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation
A former Olympic gold medalist reflects on his own financial struggles as he trained and competed for the 1984 Games. Decades later, not much has changed for many Olympians.