Delegations from North Korea and South Korea march under the Korean unification flag during the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — In an extraordinary show of unexpected unity, North and South Korea sat side by side Friday night under exploding fireworks that represented peace, not destruction, as the 2018 Winter Olympics opened on a Korean Peninsula riven by generations of anger and suspicion.
The sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, shook hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in while they watched an elaborate show of light, sound and human performance. Its aim: to tell the epic story of Korea — not North, not South, but the entire land.
After years of frustration, billions of dollars and a nagging national debate about their worth, the opening ceremonies took place before a world watching the moment not only for its athletic significance and global spectacle, but for clues about what the political future of the peninsula could hold. A delegation from North Korea, dressed in identical garb, watched from an upper deck of the stadium.
Then began the Olympic tradition that takes place at every Games — the march of athletes from the world's many nations, girded against a frigid Korean night and temperatures that dipped below freezing with biting winds.
Actors perform during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Pyeongchang Stadium on February 9, 2018.
The political intruded on the games at several turns Friday as South Korea put on a frigid show for the world that's meant to display a newfound desire to co-operate with rival North Korea along with Seoul's stunning rise from poverty and war to Asian powerhouse.
A huge crowd gathered in the freezing Olympics Stadium in this isolated, mountainous corner of South Korea, as performances displayed the sweep of Korean history and culture. Members of a delegation from North Korea, part of an extraordinary Olympics partnership between the two Korean rivals, watched from high in the stadium a performance called ``The Land of Peace'' and as past South Korean athletes paraded a large southern flag.
After a chaotic year of nuclear war threats and nuclear and missile tests from the North, it was a striking visual moment.
View of the Olympic rings during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Pyeongchang Stadium on February 9, 2018.
Will the Russians who aren't Russians — the 168 who have been invited as "Olympic Athletes from Russia,'' competing in neutral uniforms under the Olympic flag — bring home gold? Will Patrick Chan of Canada hit his quad jumps and claim figure skating glory?
Can reigning men's gold medallist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan overcome injury and defend his title against Chan? Will the past and present star of American skiing, Lindsey Vonn, be surpassed by the likely future of the sport, Mikaela Shiffrin?
Canada will be seeking to top the 25 medals it won in Sochi and has sent 225 athletes, its largest winter Olympics team ever.
But the athletic aspect of these games has been overshadowed in the buildup to the opening ceremony by a frenzied, increasingly momentous fire-hose spray of political developments. The rival Koreas, flirting with war just weeks ago, are suddenly making overtures toward the no-longer-quite-so-absurd notion of co-operation.
"Everybody make some noise!'' two pre-ceremony emcees shouted in English and Korean as spectators streamed into the Olympic Stadium before the ceremony.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's sister, making an unprecedented visit to South Korean soil, will now likely attend the same opening ceremony as U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, who's vowing toughest-ever sanctions on the North. Could they meet? That and other theories have engulfed South Korean media.
Could Pyeongchang's initial pitch — that it could contribute to peace on the Korean Peninsula — actually become reality? The opening ceremony will offer at least some hints about that, and maybe more. What's certain is that these Games, more so than any in recent memory, are about far more than sports.