Kim Jong Un's Olympic Games

One need not be a cynic to believe that the concept of the "Olympic spirit" was just something invented by business-minded sports functionaries. And there is nothing new about the supposedly unpolitical Games being used and misused for political gain. The latest chapter of this never-ending saga is currently being written by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. In his struggle for political and perhaps even physical survival, the strongman has chosen to use means more subtle than nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles since the new year began.

Hijacked during his New Year's address

Next month, South Korea will host its second Olympics. Such a distinction brings international prestige. But in just a few sentences delivered during his New Year's address, Kim Jong Un managed to hijack the Games themselves. The world's eyes will now be focused on the North Korean delegation as it heads south. The team will have little athletic success. In fact, the South Korean women's ice hockey team will likely be robbed of its shot at a gold medal. History has shown that teams assembled for political ends produce little athletically. Germany saw that happen at the 1938 football World Cup, when it sent a "Greater Germany" squad after the annexation of Austria.

If the decision to create a joint ice hockey team made South Koreans unhappy, the most recent North Korean proposal will be greeted even less favorably. On Thursday, Pyongyang declared that all Koreans should work toward reunification on the peninsula — without outside interference. One should not bother taking the proposal literally. Kim himself knows that his regime cannot compete with its prosperous southern neighbors in a battle of economic systems. And not even the friendliest of South Korean governments would be naive enough to prop up the northern dictator economically without guarantees.

Survival instincts of a gambler

And that is why Kim's proposal is aimed at emphasizing something that all Koreans actually do have in common: the feeling of being pushed around by bigger countries in the international community. If North Korea can successfully rouse nationalist sentiment in the South as part of its propaganda show, then Kim will have hijacked more than just the Olympics. He will have also peeled South Korea away from its most important allies — a feat that would perfectly fit the survival instincts of the gambler from Pyongyang.

Peter Sturm is an editor at the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).