A Team of Their Own: Seth Berkman

While it is frustrating to see North Korean projectiles flying out to sea and Pyongyang’s erratic, unpredictable reactions in negotiations, we cannot forget where things stood in 2017 - the days of Fire and Fury. The exchange of rhetoric between the United States and North Korea appeared to be pushing both sides towards a confrontation. Then a shift happened just as quickly as the escalation - especially after North Korea’s showed interest in jointly participating in the Olympics with South Korea at Pyeongchang in early 2018. 

At the heart of this joint participation in the Olympics was the ice hockey team that was formed with athletes representing both North and South Korea - these are events that you might be already familiar with, but a lot was happening at Pyeongchang, both at a geopolitical level and at a human level. 

The unified Korea team was more than just a story of North-South reconciliation. The team was pan-Korean with players of Korean descent from Canada and the United States skating side-by-side.  

Seth Berkman is the author of the first book on this unique event. His new book "A Team of Their Own: How an International Sisterhood Made Olympic History" is now available wherever good books are sold.