News
- N. Korean Art Troupe Return Home Monday
- North Korea's art troupe returned home on Monday via the western border land route following two concerts in celebration of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The 140-member Samjiyon Orchestra led by Hyon Song-wol returned home on Monday morning using the inter-Korean transit office on the Gyeongui Line at the western border. The art troupe arrived at Mukho Port in South Korea last Tuesday via the North Korean ferry, Mangyongbong-92. The orchestra, consisting of around 140 musicians and artists, performed at the Gangneung Arts Center in Gangneung on Thursday and at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul on Sunday.
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2018-02-12
News
- N. Korean High-level Delegation Returns Home after Olympic Tour
- North Korea's high-level delegation returned home Sunday night after its three-day trip to South Korea. The 22-member delegation, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong and the North's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam, departed on a North Korean plane from Incheon International Airport around 10:24 p.m. The delegation wrapped up its trip after attending the North's Samjiyon orchestra’s second and final concert in Seoul, which started at 7 p.m. at the National Theater of Korea. President Moon Jae-in watched the concert along with Kim Yo-jong, Kim Yong-nam and head of the art troupe, Hyon Song-wol. Kim Yong-nam told Moon before the start of the performance that he could now return to his country carrying “hope that they will meet again” as platforms for such talks have been established. Moon in response, stressed inter-Korean cooperation while comparing the recent exchange to a “small spark” that could turn into a “full burning torch.” The head of the art troupe sang a song about reunification in the later part of the show, and Seohyun from South Korean pop group Girls' Generation joined the North Korean performers for a song at the end of the concert.
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2018-02-12
News
- Lee Seung-hoon Finishes Fifth in 5,000M Speed Skating
- South Korean speed skater Lee Seung-hoon finished in fifth place in the men’s 5,000 meter final on Sunday at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. In the race held at the Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, the sub-host city of the Winter Games, Lee clocked in six minutes 14-point-15 seconds. The finish time hovered below his personal best of six minutes seven-point-04 and his season best of six minutes 12-point-41 seconds. Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, who won gold in the event in the last two Winter Olympics, successfully defended his 5,000 meter title with an Olympic record of six minutes nine-point-76 seconds. Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada and Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Norway came in second and third, respectively.
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2018-02-11
News
- PyeongChang Winter Olympics Begin
- The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics officially kicked off at 8 p.m. Friday with a spectacular opening ceremony. More than 29-hundred athletes from 92 nations are taking part in the event, the largest in Winter Olympics history. There are also a record 102 gold medals up for grabs this year in 15 sporting events. North Korea is among those participating at the Games in a move aimed at improving Seoul-Pyongyang relations and creating an Olympics of peace. The U.S has sent the largest delegation from any single country in the history of the Winter Games, with around 240 American athletes competing at PyeongChang. Team Korea consists of one-hundred-46 athletes, who will be hoping to achieve the country’s targeted fourth place finish with eight gold, four silver and eight bronze medals. Meanwhile, six nations are taking part in their first Winter Olympics, including Malaysia, Ecuador, Singapore and Nigeria. The competition is being held in Pyeongchang, Gangneung and Jeongseon, with most snow events taking place in Pyeongchang and all ice events in Gangneung. It represents the second time Korea has hosted the Olympics, following the Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988. The nation took part in the Winter Games for the first time in 1948 and has now become a host nation 70 years later. It's also only the second Winter Olympics held in Asia after the 1998 Nagano Games in Japan 20 years ago. South Korea has also become only the fifth country in the world to host all four major sports events -- the Summer and Winter Olympics, the soccer World Cup and the IAAF World Athletics Championships. The other four countries are France, Germany, Italy and Japan. But the most meaningful achievement will be to host a peaceful Olympics, following an escalation in the North Korean nuclear crisis last year. A unified inter-Korean team is competing in women’s ice hockey, while the two Koreas marched together in the opening ceremony under the flag of a unified Korean Peninsula. North Korea sending its art troupe, cheerleaders and a high-level delegation to South Korea has also created a momentum for dialogue. Despite the Olympic ban on Russia over its doping scandal, individual Russian athletes are still able to participate in the Olympics under a neutral flag if they proved they hadn’t violated anti-doping protocols. The Games continue through February 25 for 17 days.
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2018-02-11
Hot Issues of the Week
- Unified Korean Women's Ice Hockey Team Loses to Switzerland 8-0
- A unified women’s ice hockey team from the two Koreas fell to Switzerland 8-0 in their first preliminary match at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Saturday. Alina Muller scored four goals for the Swiss team, including three in the first period, while Phoebe Staenz chipped in with two in the second period. Lara Stalder added two more in the third. The Korean team, consisting of 23 from the South and 12 from the North, faced an uphill battle early on against the sixth-ranked team, which won a bronze medal at the Sochi Games. The 22nd-ranked South, led by American coach Sarah Murray, began training with the 25th-ranked North only about two weeks ago. However, the event drew an attention not only for a result but also for its political symbolism as a debut stage for the first-ever joint Olympic team South and North Korea assembled. The venue, Kwandong Hockey Center in sub-host city Gangneung, was packed with six-thousand spectators, including South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a high-ranking North Korean delegation, including the regime’s nominal head of state Kim Yong-nam. The two Koreas also fielded a unified team several times previously, but all at smaller sporting events, including the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships where they won the women’s doubles. At the Saturday’s ice hockey event, three North Korean athletes were given the chance to play, including Jong Su-hyon, Kim Un-hyang and Hwang Chung-gum, who carried a unified flag along with South Korea’s male bobsleigh athlete Won Yun-jong during the two Korea’s joint march at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Games on Friday. Meanwhile, in the other Group B preliminary match held early in the day, Sweden beat Japan 2-1. The unified Korean team will next face Sweden at 9:10 p.m. on Monday and Japan at 9:10 p.m. on Wednesday. Top two teams from Group B will advance to the playoffs, where they will face stronger Group A teams.
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2018-02-10
News
- Dutch Speed Skaters Dominate Women's 3,000-M Final
- The Netherlands is beginning to dominate speed skating events at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, winning all three medals from the women’s 3,000-meter final at Gangneung Oval on Saturday. Carlijn Achtereekte won the event at a time of 3:59.21, while her compatriots Ireen Wust and Antoinette De Jong followed at 3:59.29 and 4:00.02, respectively. South Korea’s Kim Bo-reum clocked 4:12.79, the 18th fastest time at the final. A total of 14 gold medals will be awarded during speed skating events of PyeongChang, the most for any single discipline.
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2018-02-10
News
- Short Track Skater Lim Wins S. Korea's 1st Gold at PyeongChang
- Lim Hyo-jun has won South Korea’s first gold medal at the Winter Olympics the country is playing host to. The 21-year-old short track speed skater won the men’s 1,500-meter final held at Gangneung Ice Arena on Saturday with an Olympic record time of 2:10.485. Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands came in second at 2:10.555 and Semen Elistratov from Russia finished third 2:10.687. Lim’s win brings home Team Korea’s first of any medal at the PyeongChang Olympics and makes him the first South Korean man to win an Olympic gold in short track speed skating in eight years. His teammate Hwang Dae-heon fell during the final and couldn’t finish the race and while Seo Yi-ra failed to advance to the final. North Korea’s Choe Un-song also competed at the 1,500-meter preliminary in the country’s debut in short track discipline, but did not make it to the next round. Meanwhile, the South Korean women short track skaters won Heat 1 of 3,000-meter relay on Saturday to advance to the final. The Koreans, including Choi Min-jeong, Shim Suk-hee, Kim Ye-jin, and Lee Yu-bin clocked a time of 4:06.387. The final will be held on February 20th. In women’s 500-meter preliminaries also held on Saturday, Choi, ranked No. 1 in the world, set the Olympic record of 42-point-872 seconds to cruise to the quarterfinals, while Shim and Kim A-lang failed to make the cut.
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2018-02-10
News
- Swedish Cross-Country Skier Kalla Wins 1st Gold at PyeongChang
- Sweden’s cross-country skier Charlotte Kalla has defeated defending champion Marit Bjoergen of Norway to claim the first gold medal of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Kalla won the 15-kilometer skiathlon final held at the Alpensia Cross-Country Center in PyeongChang on Saturday afternoon with the time of 40 minutes 44-point-nine seconds. Bjoergen, who won the same event at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2014 Sochi Games, came in next seven-point-eight seconds later, while Finland’s Krista Parmakoski clinched a bronze medal at 40 minutes 55 seconds. South Korea’s Lee Chae-won finished 57th at 46 minutes 44-point-five seconds,while Japan’s Masako Ishida, finishing 14th, clocked the fastest time as an Asian at the event at 42 minutes four-point-one seconds. A total of 102 gold medals are up for grabs at the PyeongChang Games, including 12 in cross-country skiing.
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2018-02-10
News
- Olympic Organizers' Web Site Suffered Cyber Attack during Opening Ceremony
- Organizers of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics said Saturday that its servers were hacked by an unknown attacker during the opening ceremony on Friday. The Organizing Committee for the PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Games said the cyber attack caused a malfunction with the Internet protocol televisions (IPTV) at the Main Press Center. Organizers shut down the servers to prevent further damage which led to the closure of the Olympic Web site. During this period, people were unable to print out their reserved tickets to Olympic events. The Web site was restored around 8:00 a.m. Saturday. The perpetrator of the attack remains unknown. The organizing committee put out a statement saying that some issues occurred on Friday but had no effect on the safety of any athletes or spectators during the opening ceremony. It said it was investigating the cause and will share the findings.
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2018-02-10
News
- Moon: PyeongChang Will Be Starting Point for World Peace
- President Moon Jae-in is lauding the international community for coming together despite differences and conflicts to celebrate the Winter Games in South Korea, saying the PyeongChang Olympics will be a starting point for world peace. Moon made the remark in a welcoming speech he gave to a group of top representatives from various countries at a Pre-Olympics reception ceremony held at the Yongpyeong Ski Resort in Pyeongchang on Friday. The president said although countries have difficult issues to address with one another, including host South Korea, being together will be a precious starting point from which they can take further steps towards global peace. Noting that the PyeongChang Olympics brought together those who otherwise would not have been able to be in the same place, apparently referring to officials representing the two Koreas and their allies, Moon said what counts is they are now together, able to talk each other about the future, while rooting for athletes competing at the Games. President Moon also expressed high expectation for the inter-Korean women’s ice hockey team that will play in PyeongChang. He hoped that as the previous unified team from the two Koreas became a seed of peace by winning the women’s doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships in 1991, this unified ice hockey team will also make an impact on peace, adding the two-point-seven gram ping-pong ball has grown to become a 170-gram hockey puck.
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2018-02-09
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