MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
To South Korea now where a backlash is building against plans to show unity with North Korea at next month's Olympics. The president's approval rating has dropped sharply, and in Seoul today protesters set fire to a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. NPR's Elise Hu reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Korean).
ELISE HU, BYLINE: "We oppose, we oppose," shouted demonstrators at Seoul Station, the train and subway station in the center of the capital city. They showed up to confront a North Korean advance team which was here to scout out Olympic venues. This coziness between the North and South came about just in the past two weeks. Athletes from the two Koreas will march under one unified flag, and they'll form a joint North-South women's hockey team. Last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-In called the moves important steps toward peace in North-South relations.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT MOON JAE-IN: (Speaking Korean).
HU: "That scene alone will be a historic moment to be remembered for a long time," Moon said during a visit to South Korean athletes at their Olympic training center. "Not only will Koreans be moved," he said, "but people around the world will be deeply moved." Many South Koreans aren't impressed. Over the weekend in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood, where locals and tourists crowd the busy sidewalks, Shin Jae-mun told us he feels like South Korean Olympians are being used as political pawns.
SHIN JAE-MUN: It's not a smart move. South Korean ice hockey team already practiced a lot by playing their own team.
HU: President Moon's approval rating fell to the second-lowest of his presidency amid public anger over the combined women's hockey team. Seventy-three percent of South Koreans in a poll this month said they saw no need for a combined team. Petitions against the move flooded the president's office, some of them with tens of thousands of signatures each.
KATHARINE MOON: I think South Koreans don't want North Koreans free-riding.
HU: Katharine Moon is a professor and Asian studies chair at Wellesley College.
K. MOON: There is real concern and empathy for the South Korean players, especially the women's ice hockey team that's basically being forced to play with strangers.
HU: As time wears on under two separate Koreas, younger generations don't feel the same connection to North Korea as their grandparents, who remember a time when they were all part of the same country. As North Korea has built up its nuclear and missile capabilities, trust has worn down.
K. MOON: Unification has to be something that both Koreas substantively work on. You can't just talk about it rhetorically. You can't just wish it. And you can't just put on orchestral and cheering squad shows in order to say you have unification. And I think South Koreans are demanding some substance.
HU: Shin says he's skeptical this will affect relations in the long term.
SHIN: North Korean government is not reasonable government. They are unpredictable. These Olympic things will not last long enough.
HU: At the demonstration against North Korea today, protesters complained the PyeongChang Olympics were turning into the Pyongyang Olympics. They used a blowtorch to set fire to a photo of Kim Jong Un until police helped stamp it out. The outcry prompted South Korean President Moon to ask for more public support for efforts to make peace. We may not be able to create such an opportunity for dialogue again, Moon said, referring to the fragile state of relations right now. South Korean student Byun Joo-kyung says she gets it.
BYUN JOO-KYUNG: We have a lot of tension, so maybe we have to lower it.
HU: But she doubts this will change North Korea's nuclear posture. That uncertainty about harmony with the North is driving the domestic political divide in the South. Elise Hu, NPR News, Seoul.
(SOUNDBITE OF LITTLE PEOPLE'S "MAKEMEBETTER")