A Brief History of Sport and Politics on the Korean Peninsula

At the tail end of September, in a tiny arena in a skiing town near Germany's Bavarian Alps, two North Korean figure skaters put in the performance of their careers to earn qualification for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kim Ju-sik, 25, and Ryom Tae-ok, 18, glided across the ice — to “Je ne suis qu’une chanson,” an anthem by Canadian diva Ginette Reno — and logged a career-best total score of 180.09 points.