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News > Sport

Moon Urges North Korea to Join PyeongChang Games amid Widescale Fears

  • Committee head says South Korea has been host to several very safe sporting events.

    Committee head says South Korea has been host to several very safe sporting events. | Photo: AFP FILE

Published 31 October 2017
Opinion

"Korea was not divided yesterday, Korea was divided since 1945," president of the Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the Olympic Games said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is urging North Korea to take part in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea next year.

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Moon, in an address during a meeting, insinuated that The North's participation would promote a peace initiative.

“(The government) is determined to make the Olympic Games into a global peace festival. Peace is the fundamental spirit of the Olympics. Our citizens have the unwavering determination and ability to achieve peace.

“The door to PyeongChang and the path to peace are open to North Korea as well. North Korea's one step toward PyeongChang will be great progress for peace that cannot be gained by hundreds of missiles.”

The South Korean head of state was, on Tuesday, attending a National Unification Advisory Council session in Gangwon Province.

The 2018 Pyeongchang Games' Olympic flame was handed to the organizers in preparation for a 100-day journey in South Korea, before the opening ceremony scheduled for Feb. 9.

Greek Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos relayed the flame to Pyeongchang organizing committee head Lee Hee-beom during in a 90-minute ceremony held in Athens at the Panathenian Stadium – which was the venue of the first modern Olympics, in 1896.

The South Korean leg of the relay will involve about 7,500 torchbearers across 17 cities and provinces.

France, Germany and Austria recently raised concerns over the safety of their athletes during the Games, while Britain has drafted evacuation plans. The venue of the Games is approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Demilitarized Zone which divides the Korean peninsula.

Lee told AFP that concerns about a possible attack from North Korea were inflated, but contingency plans will be put in place regardless.

"Korea was not divided yesterday, Korea was divided since 1945," the president of the Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the Olympic Games said in the interview.

South Korea has been host to several "very safe and secure sports events", he added.

"Pyeongchang is not the exception," he explained.

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