Sports diplomacy may not work for ties

The 17th Asian Games, which opens in Incheon, the Republic of Korea, on Thursday, is a major sports event for most participants. But for athletes from the two parts of the Korean Peninsula, it will be yet another platform for a new round of political game.

After grudgingly announcing the cancellation of its cheering squad's trip to the ROK on Aug 28, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has blamed Seoul officials for deliberately thwarting the visit by citing restrictive international norms and raising the question of scheduled expenses. Minor as it may seem, the dispute over the scale of the DPRK delegation reflects more deep-seated inter-Korean tensions, including the longstanding political confrontation between the two sides.

Even while preparations for the Asian Games were going on, the DPRK reiterated its nuclear weapons development program is "indispensable" for the protection of the country, which means Pyongyang will not abandon or scale down its nuclear program. After that came the news of a 24-year-old American citizen being sentenced to six years of hard labor for illegally entering the DPRK with the intention to spy against the country, which will further strain DPRK-US relations.