Olympic controversy inflames debate in South Korea over China ties

Relations with China already were proving a delicate and divisive issue in the run-up to South Korea’s too-close-to-call presidential elections just a month away.

And that was before “Speedskatergate.”

Short-track speedskating is a national obsession in South Korea, where top athletes have regularly brought home top honors in international competitions.

Thus there was a surge of anger and disbelief this week at the Winter Olympics in Beijing when judges summarily disqualified two top South Korean skaters for rules violations in the semifinals of their 1,000-meter race Monday.

Only adding to the outrage was the fact that two Chinese skaters went on to win the gold and silver medals in the event — when a Hungarian rival was disqualified after apparently finishing first in the final.

Even the two front-runners for the March 9 presidential race — Lee Jae-myung of President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition conservative People Power Party — felt compelled to weigh in as anti-China sentiment surged in the South Korean press and online.

Many complained that the judging decision had unfairly cheated the South Korean racers of a chance for victory. Others also took aim at the host nation, saying the result and the rulings that benefited the Chinese entrants showed a clear bias.

“Is China going to take up all the gold medals?” one internet poster wrote, speculating that Olympic officials were favoring China because of the huge economic investment made by Beijing in staging the Games.

The DPK’s Mr. Lee said on Facebook that he was “disappointed and irritated” over the rulings, while The Korea Times reported that party Chair Song Young-gil complained that “people will now start believing that a host country will enjoy more than an advantage of winning medals more easily: the country will probably monopolize the medals.”

The PPP’s Mr. Yoon also expressed sympathy for the disqualified South Koreans, but added he should not be discussing relations with a particular country because of the incident in the middle of a campaign.

But political analyst and Jangan University professor Park Chang-hwan told The Korea Times that the incident may end up helping Mr. Yoon, whose party has criticized Mr. Moon for not taking a more aggressive stand against China on issues such as accepting U.S. missile defense systems on South Korean soil.

“For the PPP’s Yoon, who has already been using anti-China sentiment in his campaigning, this could offer a good opportunity to win more support from voters,” the analyst said.

China’s own nationalist online “netizens” have only fueled the controversy, staunchly defending the judges’ decisions and analyzing why the two South Koreans were guilty as charged of impeding rivals during their races.

They accused South Korean politicians and speedskating fans of “hyping controversy” and claimed that South Koreans have a long reputation of aggression and rule-bending in the crash-laden, chaotic sport.

“Chinese netizens noted that the South Korean team is famous for a history of disturbing others aggressively during competitions, not just limited to the Monday test or against the Chinese team,” the state-controlled Global Times reported Wednesday.

The ill will might have been eased a bit after Wednesday’s 1,500-meter short-track race in Beijing: Hwang Dae-heon, one of the two South Korean skaters disqualified on Monday, finished first to take home South Korea’s first gold medal of the Games.