The inside of an accommodation for athletes at the PyeongChang Village in PyeongChang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul (Photo: english.yonhapnews.co.kr) Pyeongchang (VNA/Yonhap) — With the PyeongChangWinter Olympics just around the corner, organizers said on January 25 that thetwo athletes’ villages are ready to greet participants, with visitors expectedto start moving in this week, Yonhap news agency of the Republic of Korea (RoK)reported. While official welcoming ceremonies will start on Feb. 1,advance teams from different countries will move to the villages starting January26, the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and ParalympicWinter Games said. The RoK prepared two villages for the 2018 Winter Games,with the PyeongChang Village serving athletes performing at snow events in thehost town of PyeongChang, located 180 kilometers east of Seoul, and nearbyJeongseon. Athletes performing in ice events such as hockey and skatingwill be accommodated in the Gangneung Olympic Village, east of PyeongChang. The PyeongChang Village has eight 15-story buildings, whichamounts to 600 units. The Gangneung counterpart has nine 25-story buildings, or922 units. The villages will have various facilities for athletes,including banks, post offices, convenience stores, laundry rooms, gyms andreligious centers. The committee is also planning to host various culturalevents, including dance performances, to entertain athletes during their stay. The organizing committee added that athletes are allowed totake the blankets in their rooms back home as gifts. The special blankets areinscribed with pictograms of different winter sports. “We have prepared 3,300 blankets for the PyeongChangVillage, and 2,600 for the Gangneung Village,” an official from thecommittee said, adding… [Read full story]
Russia has installed an all-encompassing surveillance system at the site of next year's Winter Olympic Games in Sochi that will allow security services to listen in on athletes and visitors, security analysts said on Monday. Dubbed SORM, the system will give Russian security services free access to all phone and Internet communications at the Olympic Games in February without the providers' knowledge, according to research by Soldatov and his colleague Irina Borogan. Telecom providers are required to pay for the SORM equipment and its installation, but law enforcement agencies will be able to wiretap without having to show providers court…... [read more]
North Korea could send a delegation to the South for the 2018 Winter Olympics, in the first indication Pyongyang may participate in next month's Games despite tensions over its nuclear weapons program. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said in his new year's address Monday: "We are willing to take necessary measures including to dispatch our delegation" to the Pyeongchang Games which Seoul and organizers have billed as a "peace Olympics". The Winter Olympics will take place from February 9 to 25, with the Paralympics scheduled to begin on March 9. Games organizers and Seoul have both been keen for the…... [read more]
Two Koreas agree to march together at Winter Olympics opening The two Koreas agreed Wednesday to march together under a single flag at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony and field a united women's ice hockey team at the Games in a further sign of easing tensions on the peninsula. North Korea also said it would send a 550-member delegation to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in the South, Seoul said, as the two sides met to discuss athlete numbers in the latest in a flurry of cross-border talks. Nuclear-armed Pyongyang agreed last week to take part in next month's Pyeongchang…... [read more]
(VOVworld) - North Koreans will be allowed to travel to South Korea for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics if they wish to take part. Lee Duk-haeng, spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said Monday that there are no sanctions in place that prevent North Koreans from taking part, despite sanctions imposed by the UN and other countries. The Ministry's comments came after Choi Moon-soon, the governor of Pyeongchang province, said that a North Korean sports official had told him the North wants to take part in the Games. A North Korea sports delegation is currently in South Korea to take…... [read more]
Pyongyang agreed last week to send athletes, high-level officials, and others to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, easing months of high tensions over its weapons programmes.The two sides agreed an art troupe would be part of the delegation, and eight officials -- four from each -- started a working-level meeting to thrash out the details on the northern side of the Military Demarcation Line at the border truce village of Panmunjom soon after 10 am (0100 GMT), Seoul's unification ministry said.The North's delegates include Kwon Hyok-Bong, a senior culture ministry official, as well as Hyon Song-Wol, the leader of the…... [read more]
