On Friday, the 2018 Winter Olympics will kick off in PyeongChang, South Korea. Figure skating and hockey are among the most exciting events, but there may be another event that is even more highly anticipated. It was recently announced that North and South Korea would be walking together under under one flag at the opening ceremonies. The flag will portray a unified Korea with “an undivided Korean Peninsula.” It will also be the first time that North and South Korean athletes compete on a team (women’s ice hockey) together since 1991. When negotiators from both countries came together to discuss the Olympics, they agreed that supporters would cheer on athletes from North and South Korea. All together, this move signified a hopeful step forward from decades of tension and hostility.

Today, the White House announced that Vice President Mike Pence would be attending the Olympics to represent the U.S. and “to promote the White House’s ‘maximum pressure’ policy on North Korea, encouraging allies to maintain hardline positions, and emphasize North Korea’s autocracy and brutality as Pyongyang pursues positive media coverage.” In other words, the VP will be there in order to counter North Korea every chance he gets.

This move by the White House is a slap to the face to what the Olympics is meant to symbolize. The official logo is a representation of the intertwining of countries and cultures that occurs at the Olympics. While the Olympics itself is a competition, it is also used as an opportunity for countries to come together and showcase the best in each other. Despite the hardships that hosting countries typically face, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) views this worldwide event as “essentially a peace movement…meant to show that the world’s nations and athletes can come together and, if only for a brief period, the chance of conflict can be lessened.”

Therefore, it is extremely disappointing that the Trump administration would exploit the Olympics as an opportunity to push its own agenda. As a Korean, I welcomed the news of North and South Korea coming together for the Olympics and saw an opportunity for reconciliation. As an American, I am not looking forward to the negativity that VP Pence will spread at what is meant to be a peaceful and uplifting event. This is not to erase the difficult relationship that North and South Korea have had or excuse the horrendous behavior of the North Korean government. It is simply to say that the Olympics could serve as a turning point for Korea and the Trump administration is only keeping things the way they are: hateful and strained. Let us return to what the Olympics are meant to signify and represent the values of peace and unity.