Abstract

Korean sport has been political and diplomatic practice that should be supposed to follow that way over the history within the geopolitics of inter-Korean relations. Under Japanese colonial rule and great powers of international orders, sport was not only the only way to maintain Korean national identity but also the channel to make independent Korea’s debut in the global community. Sport has been also a practice to represent inter-Korean reconciliation and unification, as well as to show off Korea’s development manifested in the Miracle of Han River. Now in the twenty-first century’s international orders and a changing miIieu of the Korean peninsula, more diverse actors and different approaches are needed. Responding to this call, this study examines the combination of sport and local governments in public diplomacy, and thereby going into the importance of local governments as sport public diplomacy actors to contribute to inter-Korean relations and peace on the Korean peninsula. To do that, it first clarifies what sport public diplomacy refers to in this study by illustrating historical overviews and definitions of sport diplomacy and public diplomacy. Following that, it next draws inter-Korean sports exchanges over the history to delve into the historical transformations of the “peace” discourse-practice nexus. Furthermore, it addresses how local governments as non-state actors have played a role in sport public diplomacy through the ways in which sports talks between two Koreas and Korea-China-Japan sports exchanges have been made over the history. Concluding remarks provide three rationales that reiterate the importance of local governments to lead sport public diplomacy for peace on the Korean peninsula.

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*This article is written in Korean.