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Several thousand people are pouring onto the streets of Seoul.
They carry posters of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with comical red crosses over this face, sometimes with a bloodied nose.
Protesters have turned out for months, but this is the last time they will meet before the Games begin so they make this a good one.
They are incensed by the South Korean Government's embrace of North Korea in these Winter Games, just days before they begin.
To these protesters, this is a Northern propaganda coup, and the South is being taken for a ride.
The notion North Korean athletes are marching alongside Southern compatriots under a unified flag at the Opening Ceremony is too much to bear for some.
Jason Kim, one protester, tells me he cannot support these Games that embrace the North while they point ICBMs at the world.
To him, South Korea's Games have been hijacked by the North's agenda.
"I think it's a very big trick," he said.
Another demonstrator tells me "it is only a promotion of Kim Jong-un, so we are truly against these Olympics".
They are overwhelmingly middle-aged or older, and could be written off as old-time hardliners.
But in fact, younger South Koreans have also turned against this Government for its decision, in particular, to launch a joint women's ice-hockey team.
A recent poll said while four out of five South Koreans agreed with the general principle of involving North Korea, more than 70 per cent are vehemently opposed to the idea of a joint team.
In fact, a South Korean fan has complained to the national human rights watchdog that the decision infringes the individual rights of southern athletes.
Go Myong-Hyun, a research fellow at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said it highlighted a philosophical and cultural divide between generations — the older generation that valued sacrifice for the greater good, and the younger one that has been brought up on North Korea's nuclear threats and is drawn more towards the non-Korean modern world.
"A significant voice within South Korean society believes the current Government is forcing a political mood … that even though there is a lot of scepticism about North Korea, with its recent history of provocations, that the South Korean Government would like to [overlook] these issues and instead force this atmosphere of inter-Korean bonhomie, which I think many members of the society feel is detached from reality."
One protester told me "This is not for the Games. This is not for peace. This is just a political decision".
"I'm very disappointed, very angry about this decision."
But what choice did South Korea have?
None, says Professor Jeong Yoon-soo, a sports issues analyst from Sungkonghoe University in Seoul.
"Stuck between the strong power confrontation between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, the South Korean Government has been cornered," Professor Jeong said.
"Luckily, the Olympics have served as an opportunity to make the North Korean military threat almost disappear over the past two or three months."
Professor Chung said North Korea's pugnacious posturing hides a parallel intention to re-enter negotiations, and the temporary Olympic intimacy with its neighbour signals that.
He believes "even if it is a gesture, even if it is an act, if it achieves even temporary peace, it is worth it."
And Professor Chung, who could probably be classified as an optimistic pessimist in this scenario, said if it achieved more, it would be a spectacular achievement.
"If these Olympics become a seed for negotiation or dialogue, they will become an unprecedented peace Olympics."
Both experts say the North also has much to gain — its theatrics and warlike rhetoric are a smokescreen for its greater aspiration to be considered an equal counterpart to the US in negotiations.
"Both South Korea and North Korea have a lot at stake in the successful outcome of the Games and the success of this unified team," Dr Go said.
"But let's say that they are not successful, that there is possible conflict within the unified team for instance, and that the unified team doesn't perform well and there is general scepticism among the South Korean public, even with the Olympics … then I think the South Korean Government would face important questions right after the Olympics."
The stakes are high all round. Another Olympics — another high-profile political shadow play.
Topics: winter-olympics, olympic-games-organising-committee, world-politics, government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, korea-republic-of
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