Overview

• Ssireum, a millennia-old Korean wrestling tradition, remains confined to the South despite shared roots across the peninsula.
• Divergent rules on weight classes and ring dimensions have blocked any unified competitions under a single regulatory framework.
• South Korea’s national security laws ban perceived North Korean propaganda, making positive engagement via Ssireum legally sensitive.
• Past joint sports efforts, from the 1991 table tennis teams to the 18 PyPyeongchang Olympics, revealed sports’ potential to bridge inter-Korean divides.
• President Lee Jae-myung’s new outreach policy has raised hopes that future dialogues might overcome the logistical and political hurdles to Ssireum exchanges.