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Winter Olympics could be nice "icebreaker" between North and South Korea

These Winter Olympics might be a nice icebreaker between North and South Korea says one local professor who's been in the country since the aftermath of the Korean War.

SEOUL - Inside the Korean War Museum in downtown Seoul, Dr. Owen Wilson from George Mason University in South Korea has been walking through this county's history for decades.

“I’ve been coming here for over three decades since the early '80s,” Wilson said.

He came to South Korea as a U.S. Marine while the country was pulling itself out of the devastation of the Korean War. It struggled until the build-up for the Summer Olympics in 1988.

"That Olympics was really the catalyst for the change," Wilson explained.

It was that spark that helped push South Korea from rubble to resurgence with investment in infrastructure like road and buildings. Much of what was built is still used in 2018.

"It was a daily change; you went from having dirt roads to paved roads in a matter of a few days to villages being knocked down and rebuilt in months," Wilson continued.

In the years after the Korea War, with their country split in two, tensions became a way of life between the North and South. Despite the continued tensions, another Olympics is seen by some as another chance at transformation - this time at easing relations with the North.

"It might be a nice icebreaker," Wilson said. "It is winter time, so we need icebreakers in order to get these two countries to look at each other differently and behave differently."

Still, the idea of unification with North Korea is a long shot at best, but another Olympics could once again show the world that South Korea's culture and history is rich in overcoming the odds.

"The cultural differences is what makes Korea so unique," Wilson said. "Maybe look at history and look at it in a new light."

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