Tag: Winter Olympics

Mattis wants to keep pressure on N. Korea

HONOLULU, United States (AFP) – The United States and South Korea are going to keep tightening the screws on Pyongyang so that the hermit state gives up its nuclear program, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday. “As two peace-loving nations, the Republic of Korea and America welcome the Olympic Games talks between the ROK and DPRK while at the same time remaining steadfast with the international economic pressure campaign to denuclearize the Korean peninsula,” Mattis said in […]

North Korean Olympic ice hockey players arrive in S. Korea

by Jung Ha-Won Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – A dozen North Korean female ice hockey players entered the South Thursday to form a unified team — the Koreas’ first for nearly three decades — at next month’s Winter Olympics. The Pyeongchang Winter Games have triggered an apparent rapprochement on the divided peninsula, where tensions have been high over the nuclear-armed North’s weapons ambitions. But the unified team has provoked controversy in the South, with accusations […]

S. Korea’s ‘Peace Olympics’ meet backlash at home

by Jung Ha-Won Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s efforts to bring the North to its Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month are provoking a backlash among its own people, with accusations that Seoul risks turning the Games into a “Pyongyang Olympics.” Many are fuming over what they see as exploitation of the South’s own athletes for political purposes, and accusing President Moon Jae-In’s government of making too many concessions to […]

S. Korea PM apologizes for gaffe on unified team

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – South Korea’s prime minister apologized Friday for suggesting the country’s women’s ice hockey team had no chance of a medal at the Winter Olympics in an unsuccessful attempt to dampen criticism over a unified team with the North. The two Koreas agreed this week to field a unified women’s ice hockey side at the Games, which begin in Pyeongchang next month. It came after Pyongyang agreed to attend what organizers and Seoul […]

S. Korea’s Incheon airport opens new terminal before Olympics

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s main international gateway Incheon airport opened its second terminal on Thursday, significantly increasing its capacity three weeks before the start of the Winter Olympics, airport authorities said. More than 300,000 tourists are expected to enter the country through Incheon during next month’s Games and the new terminal will allow 18 million more passengers to pass through the Seoul-area hub each year. A high-speed railway will connect the terminal […]

N. Korea prepares grand military parade on eve of Olympics: report

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is preparing a lavish display of its military strength in a parade on the eve of next month’s Winter Olympics in the South, despite a rare sporting detente with Seoul, it was reported Thursday. Pyongyang, which has rattled the international community with its nuclear and missile tests in recent months, has agreed to send athletes to the Games and march with the South under one flag at the […]

Two Koreas in fresh talks on Winter Olympics

by Jung Ha-Won Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North and South Korea began talks Monday on appearances by performers from Pyongyang’s state-run artistic troupes at next month’s Winter Olympics in the South, after the North agreed to attend the Games. 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 […]

S. Korea’s Moon: Denuclearization is path to peace

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is “the path to peace and our goal,” South Korean President Moon Jae-In said Wednesday, a day after the North agreed to send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in his country. “We need to continue efforts to hold a peace Olympics,” Moon told a press conference. “We need to peacefully resolve North Korea’s nuclear issue.” Delegates from North and South Korea held their first official […]

North Korea says will attend Olympics in rival South

by Hwang Sunghee Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said it was willing to send athletes and a high-level delegation to the forthcoming Winter Olympics in the South on Tuesday as the rivals held their first official talks in more than two years after high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. Seoul urged that reunions of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War — one of the most emotive legacies of the […]

North and South Korea agree to first talks in two years

  by Park Chan-Kyong Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North and South Korea agreed on Friday to hold their first talks in more than two years, hours after Seoul and Washington decided to defer joint military exercises which always infuriate Pyongyang until after the Winter Olympics. The meeting, the first since December 2015, will take place in Panmunjom, the truce village in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula. South […]

US, S. Korea agree to suspend military drills during Olympics

by Park Chan-Kyong Agence France-Presse SEOUL, South Korea –  The United States and South Korea agreed Thursday to delay their joint military exercises until after the Winter Olympics next month in an apparent move to de-escalate tensions with Pyongyang. The announcement came just hours after US President Donald Trump said that high-level talks set for next week between North and South Korea were “a good thing.” Tensions have spiralled in recent months after North Korea held multiple […]

S. Korea welcomes ‘special’ Olympic skaters from North

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean organizers of next year’s Winter Olympics welcomed Saturday the “special” qualifying of figure skaters from the North, as Seoul seeks to promote its isolated neighbor’s participation as a key part of the “Peace Games.” Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik became the first North Koreans to qualify for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games on Friday after winning one of the five Olympic pairs spots available at a qualifying tournament in […]