Tag: Winter Olympics

Via a reader tip comes news that a virus is spreading among workers at the Winter Olympics:

Some security agents responsible for the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games have been infected with norovirus, forcing organizers to quarantine about 1,200 agents and replace them with soldiers.

The committee categorized 41 staff members as “suspected patients” on Monday.

Earlier the day, the committee had said three of them were confirmed to have contracted the virus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, while 38 were suspected of having it.

The patients vomited and suffered from stomach pains. Some of the agents were in charge of the athletes’ village, raising concerns that the virus may affect international athletes who will stay there.

The patients, mostly university students, were hired by a recruiting agency to provide workforce for screening at the entrance of venues.

Organizers said the virus appeared to have originated from Horeb Odaesan Youth Training Center in PyeongChang, where the agents stayed in a room for six in a group of 10. The Institute of Health and Environment under Gangwon Province Office found traces of the virus in a drinking water dispenser, and in shower rooms and in washroom basins.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but if a number of athletes get sick because of this virus, this will be a major setback for South Korea who is hosting the games.

Here is the cost so far of paying off the Kim regime to attend the Winter Olympics:

The government had already diverted more than W250 million from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund as of Thursday to help North Korea take part in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (US$1=W1,072).

That is expected to snowball once all 500 members of a massive cheerleading squad, an orchestra, and a Taekwondo demonstration team arrive here around the time the Olympics open.

The government is not saying what the money has been spent on, despite fears that its support could violate UN and U.S. sanctions against the North Korean regime.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but this is likely just the tip of the iceberg of the money spent on the Kim regime to attend the Winter Olympics to essentially prevent them for causing provocations during the games.

I guess if Apartheid South Africa had moved forward with developing a nuclear program and threatened to nuke everyone they could have not only attended the Olympics, but had the red carpet rolled out for them and had someone else pay to compete in the games.

Every Olympic athlete will walk away with a spiffy new Samsung smartphone and some Nike gear—except for N. Korea's athletes, because sanctions. Sad.https://t.co/sYXbsVJhLh

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) February 3, 2018

The North Korean national flag (C) is hoisted at the athletes’ village for the PyeongChang Olympics in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on Feb. 1, 2018. (Yonhap)

It is pretty amazing how Kim Jong-un has taken over the 2018 Winter Olympics.  There is very little in the Korean media about South Korean athletes while the North Korean athletes are surrounded by media attention:

North Korean Olympic athletes checked in to their living quarters for the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Games amid tight security on Thursday.

Pyongyang’s vice sports minister Won Kil-u led a delegation of 32, including 10 athletes, to Gangneung, a sub-host city for all ice events during the Feb. 9-25 Olympic Games. They’d landed at Yangyang International Airport on a South Korean chartered plane earlier Thursday, and traveled about 50 kilometers south to reach Gangneung Olympic Village.

Gangneung’s village, built for those in ice sports, is one of two athletes’ residential areas for the Olympics. PyeongChang Olympic Village will house competitors in snow events.

The 10 athletes that arrived here Thursday are three alpine skiers, three cross-country skiers, two figure skaters and two short track speed skaters.

Ryom Tae-ok, a pairs figure skater, was the center of attention from the moment she appeared at the airport. The petite athlete, who turns 19 on Friday, was one of the few who showed any semblance of emotion, flashing a sheepish grin at cameras as flashbulbs exploded around her both at the airport and the village.

Asked to comment on her visit, Ryom simply said, “I don’t talk before competitions.”

She then added, “It’s cold here.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This is how the Kim regime has made the South Korean government pay for their athletes’ travel to the Winter Olympics:

Ten North Korean Olympic athletes will board a South Korean chartered airplane on Thursday when it carries a South Korean delegation home after two days of joint ski training in the North ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Games, according to South Korean pool reporters on Wednesday.

The South’s 45-member delegation, including two dozen skiers, arrived at the Masikryong Ski Resort in North Korea on the Asiana Airlines jet for the training session.

The aircraft will carry 32 North Koreans, including 10 athletes in the disciplines of alpine and cross-country skiing and figure and short-track skating, when it returns to South Korea on Thursday, officials from the unification ministry said.

A total of 22 North Koreans will compete at the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Twelve ice hockey players have already come to the South.

Earlier in the day, the plane landed at Kalma Airport in the North’s eastern city of Wonsan about one hour after it left Yangyang International Airport in Gangwon Province, according to officials here.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the flight is in violation of sanctions on North Korea, but South Korea was able to get the Trump administration to agree to waive the sanctions as a special exemption.

This photo, taken on Jan. 29, 2018, shows an Olympic hospitality house for Switzerland being built at Yongpyong Resort in the northeastern alpine county of PyeongChang. Several nations participating in the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics will operate Olympic hospitality houses during the competition. Run by national Olympic committees or corporate sponsors, these hospitality houses will promote countries’ cultures and specialty foods. (Yonhap)

Via a reader tip comes this article about another free agent signing by South Korea for the upcoming Olympic Games.  At least he earned his spot on the team and did not have it handed to him like the North Korean female ice hockey players:

In 2013-14, without much to lose, he signed with Anyang Halla, a team based about 12 miles south of Seoul, South Korea. He was driven to his apartment directly from the airport but couldn’t sleep because of jet lag. So he walked around the city and took it all in — the skyscrapers, the frantic bustling on the streets, the colorful billboards, all in a language he did not recognize. “What did I sign up for?” he wondered.

Five years later, Testwuide’s hockey career has been revived. He has rediscovered his passion for the game. He’s playing some of the best hockey of his life. In fact, Testwuide is getting ready to play on the world’s biggest stage, as an Olympian — and with a South Korean flag stitched to his jersey.

The tale of how a kid from Colorado became a South Korean citizen — with no connections or roots to the country — is quite remarkable. That Testwuide is preparing to be an Olympian is unfathomable, even to him.   [ESPN]

You can read the rest at the link, but it is unclear from the article if he still has US citizenship or not.  If he has dual citizenship then he gets the benefits of both playing in the Olympics and still being an American.

Via a reader tip comes this news that the Blue House would like everyone to show respect towards North Korea during the upcoming Winter Olympics:

South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae called on the public Tuesday to show more respect to all countries that will participate in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, including North Korea, one day after a group of conservative activists staged a violent protest against the communist state.

“North Korea too is a participating country and we ought to respect it as we would respect all the others,” a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told Yonhap News Agency.

The official added that the presidential office was set to release an official commentary on the issue.

The move comes one day after the South Korean activist group staged a protest rally in front of Seoul train station as a visiting North Korean delegation arrived there following its overnight visit to Gangneung, 240 kilometers east of Seoul, to inspect possible venues for a musical performance before or during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.  [Korea Times]

I would like to know what is there to respect about the Kim regime?  Should Apartheid South Africa have been respected?  As bad as Apartheid was it was nothing compared to human rights violations and threats to world peace posed by the Kim regime and they were banned from the Olympics.

ROK citizens should have the right to show their displeasure with the Kim regime.  It will be interesting to see how the Moon administration tries to clamp down on protesters during the Winter Olympics.

The North Korean delegation is visiting the ROK to view locations where the Moranbong Band will perform and hopefully not sing about the greatness of the Kim regime:

A North Korean delegation arrived in Gangnueng, an eastern South Korean city, Sunday to check the venues for its proposed art performances at next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The trip came amid brisk inter-Korean contact on the North’s participation in the Olympic Games to open in three weeks.

The seven-member team is led by Hyon Song-wol, head of the North’s Samjiyon Orchestra, and known as one of the most influential women in the secretive communist nation.

She also serves as director of the Moranbong Band, the country’s well-known all-female musical group, reportedly created at the order of leader Kim Jong-un. There’s a rumor that she is an ex-girlfriend of Kim.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but a ROK delegation is supposed to go to North Korea and view the Mt. Geumgang Resort and ROK skiers are supposed to go train at the Masik Ski Resort.  This is all clearly intended to be an opening effort to get the tours restarted at Mt. Geumgang which was once a cash cow for the regime until it was closed after a grandma was shot in the back and killed by a North Korean soldier.

Opening the tours again would also circumvent the United Nations sanctions on North Korea and encourage other governments to circumvent them as well.  We will see what happens after the Winter Olympics is completed, but it seems to me it is pretty clear what the North Koreans hope to get out of their most recent charm offensive.