One small step in Korean detente

The opening ceremony for the Pyeongchang Winter Games is over and the Games are about to begin.
Although this sporting event is held once every four year, not all eyes will be on the competition this time. The most closely watched events in the initial days will be the twists and turns of global diplomacy. 
This diplomatic spectacle started off with a big bang, a historic handshake between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong-nam, at a welcoming reception. 
Just weeks ago, the region was on the verge of a nuclear war, pitting South Korea and the United States on one side against the North. But the reception served to underscore what appeared to be growing divisions between Washington and Seoul.
While US President Donald Trump was beating the war drum, saying how he was going to devastate North Korea if the US were to be provoked, Pyongyang quickly changed tack and shifted to a charm offensive after it became clear that leader Kim Jong-un had got what he wanted – the ability to fire a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States. 
Pyongyang toned down its rhetoric and sent not only athletes to compete in the winter Olympics in South Korea but even dispatched its nominal head of state to the opening ceremony. Not knowing how to backtrack from the confrontationist position built up by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence made a brief appearance at the reception but avoided the North Korean delegation and left early.
Some called it a snub. There is a place and time for such a thing but one cannot but wonder if this was the occasion given what the North and South Koreans are trying to achieve after year of tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes.
It is not that the two Koreans are lost for words. But at this particular juncture, they allowed the actions of their people and their athletes to speak for themselves. The show of unity was striking as the athletes from the North and the South walked together side by side at the opening ceremony. 
It may have been nothing more than pleasantries but Pence missed an opportunity to show North Korea, or the world for that matter, that there are other possibilities than political and military might. 
By “snubbing” the North Korean delegation, Pence made himself and his treatment of the North Koreans the story. South Korea, a major US ally, is hosting these Olympics not just for commercial reasons but as an effort to push its agenda – of peace in the Korean peninsular. 
The fact that North Korea participated in the event can itself be considered a success. The next step is to go beyond symbolism and head to the negotiating table. 
By losing sight of the larger goal, Pence ended up obstructing that effort, not to mention doing a disservice to America’s partners and its alliance. If President Moon and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe can share pleasantries with the North Koreans, Pence should have had the common courtesy to show up at the party and not present himself as the Alpha Male of the bunch.
The world came down hard on North Korea with condemnation and sanctions not because we hate North Korea but because we want the regime to change its behaviour.
Sanctions and other forms of punishment are not an end in themselves. And so when there is an opportunity to engage, world leaders need to make use of it. If it means getting off one’s high horse and shaking a few hands, so be it.