Road to Reunification? Unitary Korean Nationalism in South Korean Media Coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

This article examines South Korean media coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and concerns the discourse around the unification of North and South Korea, with the emergence of a unitary nationalism as the main theme during this period. Unitary Korean nationalism was becoming a dominant form of discourse on inter-Korean relations and was evident in the South Korean media coverage of the Olympics. Despite this, there exists a gap between sporting nationalism and political nationalism. The mood of reconciliation between the two Koreas is less evident in politics than in sport due to the ongoing political tensions and conflicts in the Korean peninsula. Wider tensions evident in the period leading up to the London 2012 Olympic Games reinforce this conclusion.