As you probably already know, the 2018 Winter Olympics are well underway in the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. The games return to the country which hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics at the tail end of the cold war, and the atmosphere is eerily reminiscent.

South Korea was chosen 30 years ago just as many major world powers were reaching a tipping point in the cold war tension. The opening ceremony even featured the releasing of white doves as a symbol of peace. In a dark twist of fate, those birds flew straight into the Olympic Flame and were incinerated. Many saw it as a foreshadowing of the tone of the games.

Horrible protests surrounded the festivities and events in 1988. Donald Kirk was a journalist for the Summer Olympics of 1988 and has returned as a journalist for the current games. He sees the protests occurring now as reflections of the past. He remarks, “the outburst of Korean-style protests evokes memories of the violence that accompanied the Summer Olympics of 1988 when students carrying Molotov cocktails poured off the campuses of universities, confronting rows of policemen in full body armor.”

Similarly, relations between North and South Korea were volatile. The North had engaged in a bloody attack on the South just 10 months before the games. A bomb took down a plane and 115 people perished in the assault. The North also engaged in a sort of mock Olympic competition immediately following the Summer games. This time around in 2018, the South has invited the North to compete under one flag and to join the games. These efforts have had a slightly warmer reception this time.

The goal, both in 1988 and now, was to open South Korea more to the world stage and to have a place to facilitate discussion and international cooperation. Hopefully, in 2018 the goal is achieved, and we take one step closer to peace rather than going up in flames.