If you have two particles in empty space with an (attractive) force between them… how did they get apart to begin with? This potential energy was introduced to

If you have two particles in empty space with an (attractive) force between them… how did they get apart to begin with? This potential energy was introduced to the system when they were separated, and will be converted to kinetic energy as they attract. Color confinement is basically a way of saying that the potential energy needed to separate color-charged particles stays high with increasing distance, until you put in enough energy to produce new (color-neutral) particle pairs that locally bind to the particles you were separating.