We all hate the thought of war on the Korean peninsula, and we fear the consequences.

The modestly good news is that since the last missile test on November 28, the North Korean regime has more or less played nice, or nicer than usual, as the Olympics approach.

Pyongyang’s decision to participate in the games and temporarily pause the sudden missile launches over Japan are generating a public-relations bonanza, at least so far. The presence of North Korean athletes is one of the biggest stories of this year’s games. The North Koreans were given permission to drape a giant flag across three floors of their athletes’ apartment building. Athletes in North and South Korea will march under a single flag during the opening ceremonies, and they’re forming a joint women’s hockey team. NBC News’ Lester Holt “delivered an upbeat news report from a ghost town in the secretive state that had been transformed into a ’busy’ ski resort.”

In the pursuit of peace, there is always the temptation to avert our eyes from an unresolved injustice. The thought of a military conflict with North Korea is so horrible, it is pleasant to imagine that the regime is not as bad as it seems, that it is reasonable, and that this can all be resolved with enough concessions at the negotiating table. All the photo-ops and reasonable behavior during the Olympics might get some on the world stage to forget the nature and character and litany of crimes of the regime.

Enough of all that. In the coming week, Vice President Mike Pence is going to the Olympics and the region and will remind the world of just who we’re dealing with.

“We’re traveling to the Olympics to make sure that North Korea doesn’t use the powerful symbolism and the backdrop of the Winter Olympics to paper over the truth about their regime,” he told reporters in Alaska last night, calling it “a regime that oppresses its own people, a regime that threatens nations around the world, a regime that continues its headlong rush to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.”

Pence will attend the opening ceremony with Fred Warmbier, the father of deceased American college student Otto Warmbier, who died after being imprisoned in North Korea. This is a regime that’s willing to batter and abuse foreign nationals after sham trials, and the world ought to know.

(Here in the United States, critics of the president warn about the dangers of Trump is being “normalized.” Few of these voices ever worry about North Korea’s regime being “normalized” through happy-talk sports coverage.)

Pence has said he’s open to meeting with the North Koreans during his trip to the games. If North Korea really wants to talk, we can talk. But we should never fool ourselves, or let them fool the world, about the true nature of their regime.