News
- Silver Win for S. Korea 4-Man Bobsleigh
- South Korea won a silver medal in the four-man bobsleigh event on the final day of the 2018 PyeoongChang Winter Olympics on Sunday. The team of Won Yun-jong, Seo Young-woo, Kim Dong-hyun and Jun Jung-lin finished second with a combined time of three minutes, 16-point-38 seconds after their four heats at Olympic Sliding Center in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province. South Korea tied for second place with a German team led by Nico Walther. With the silver medal, South Korea has become the first Asian nation to claim an Olympic medal in a bobsleigh event. The German team, piloted by Francesco Friedrich, took home the gold and the Swiss team won bronze.
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2018-02-25
News
- S. Korea Wins Silver in Women's Curling
- South Korea won a silver medal in women's curling on the final day of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Sunday. In the final match held at Gangneung Curling Center, the four-member team led by skip Kim Eun-jung lost 8-3 to Sweden. It is the first time a South Korean curling team, men or women, has made it to an Olympics final and won a medal. South Korea has also become the first Asian nation to win Olympic silver in curling. Sweden grabbed its third Olympic gold in curling with the latest win after the Winter Olympics in 2006 and 2010.
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2018-02-25
News
- N. Korean Delegation Arrives for Olympics Closing Ceremony
- North Korea's high-level delegation led by a senior official blacklisted under international sanctions has arrived in South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Kim Yong-chol, a key party official handling inter-Korean affairs, arrived at the South Korean side of the Inter-Korean Transit Office on the western border at 10:11 a.m. Sunday, heading an eight-member delegation. The delegation was greeted by South Korea's Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung at the transit office. The delegation, which plans to attend the closing ceremony on Sunday evening, is expected to meet with President Moon Jae-in, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon during a three-day trip to South Korea.
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2018-02-25
News
- Roundup of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics
- The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics held from February 9 to the 25th for 17 days is regarded as a successful event in all areas of the games' management, public popularity and athletes' records including that of Team Korea. Over 29-hundred athletes from 92 nations took part in the largest ever Winter Games. South Korea won five gold, eight silver and four bronze medals for a 7th place finish. The Games were held in Pyeongchang, Jeongseon and Gangneung in Gangwon Province. A record 102 gold medals were up for grabs. In the opening ceremony, athletes of the two Koreas jointly marched for the first time since the 2007 Winter Asian Games in China. The overall operation of the Olympics is also deemed successful. Most event schedules progressed smoothly excluding a few changes in skiing competitions due to strong winds. It was a safe Olympics with hardly any security concerns and athletes could solely focus on their performance. Ticket sales neared 98%, testifying to the popularity of the Games among the general public. Also in PyeongChang, two world records and 18 Olympic records were set. Six nations took part in the Winter Games for the first time this year including Nigeria, Malaysia and Singapore. The percentage of female athletes also posted a record high this year at 42%. One of the bigger themes of the Olympics was hosting a peaceful event amid tensions surrounding North Korea's nuclear crisis. There were concerns leading up to the games with some countries hesitating to send their athletes to South Korea. However just before the opening, North Korea's participation in the Games was materialized, swiftly shifting the mood. Forty-six North Korean athletes competed while the two Koreas fielded a joint team in women's ice hockey. Cross-border dialogue opened to discuss the joint team which led to a high-level North Korean delegation visiting the South. PyeongChang was the second Olympics hosted by South Korea after the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. A record 146 South Korean athletes competed in 15 sporting events and won a record number of medals including three gold in short-track speed skating. Yun Sung-bin who won gold in men's skeleton became Asia's first Olympic skeleton champion. Silver medals won in women's curling, 4-man bobsleigh and alpine snowboarding are considered as precious as a gold medal. A silver in women’s curling is an astonishing result for Korea’s second only competition in the sport at the Winter Olympics. The bobsleigh silver is also historic in that it’s Asia’s first ever medal won in the event. Lee Sang-ho’s silver in the men's parallel giant slalom also marked South Korea’s first Olympic medal in skiing. South Korea failed to meet its goal of winning eight gold for a fourth place finish but rare medals gained in less known events made up for its overall performance.
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2018-02-25
Hot Issues of the Week
- Speed Skater Lee Seung-hoon Wins Gold in Inaugural Olympic Mass Start Event
- South Korean speed skater Lee Seung-hoon won gold in the inaugural Olympic mass start event at the PyeongChang Winter Games on Saturday. In the men’s final at the Gangneung Ice Arena, Lee finished with a total of 60 points to finish in first place ahead of Bart Swings of Belgium. Koen Verweij of the Netherlands won the bronze, while Lee’s compatriot Chung Jae-won finished in eighth place. Saturday's gold medal is Lee's fifth Olympic medal and his second at the PyeongChang Games.
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2018-02-24
News
- Speed Skater Kim Bo-reum Claims Silver in Inaugural Olympic Mass Start
- South Korea’s speed skater Kim Bo-reum won a silver medal in the inaugural Olympic mass start event at the PyeongChang Winter Games on Saturday. In the event held at the Gangneung Ice Arena, Kim finished in second place behind Japan’s Nana Takagi. Irene Schouten of the Netherlands claimed the bronze.
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2018-02-24
News
- Alpine Snowboarder Lee Sang-ho Wins Silver in Men's Parallel Giant Slalom
- Alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho has become the first South Korean to win an Olympic medal in skiing sports. Lee won silver in the men's parallel giant slalom at Phoenix Snow Park at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in his native Gangwon Province on Saturday. Nicknamed Napa Cabbage Boy, Lee came behind Nevin Galmarini of Switzerland by point-43 seconds in the gold medal contest. Galmarini won gold after a silver in the event at the Sochi Olympics four yeas ago. Slovenia’s Zan Kosir defeated Sylvain Dufour of France to win bronze.
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2018-02-24
News
- Top Office: Olympics Raised GDP by 0.2%p in Q1
- The PyeongChang Winter Games are believed to have raised the nation's GDP growth by zero-point-two percentage points in the first quarter. According to the presidential office on Friday, the Bank of Korea and the Finance Ministry estimate that the Olympics generated an increase of one-point-four trillion won in spending, raising gross domestic product growth by a fifth of a percentage point. The financial authorities broke down the spending to 500 billion won for tourism and visits to Olympic stadiums and 900 billion won related to the cost of hosting the Winter Games. The top office said that for the whole of this year, the Olympics are expected to boost GDP by zero-point-05 to zero-point-06 percentage points. The office added that thanks to higher awareness of Pyeongchang and the Gangwon Province region, tourism in these areas will likely increase especially centered on winter sports. It said that South Korea also received wide support from the international community for its leading role in Korean Peninsula issues, as the country showed the potential for inter-Korean dialogue and improving cross-border relations during the Olympics.
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2018-02-24
News
- Sanders: No Plan to Contact N. Korea at Closing Ceremony
- White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has reaffirmed that the U.S. has no plans to meet with North Korean officials during the PyeongChang Olympics closing ceremony. Sanders, who is visiting South Korea as part of a U.S. government delegation to the Olympics, held a press conference Saturday at Team USA House at YongPyong Ski Resort, one of the Winter Game venues. Asked if there was a possibility of U.S. contact with the senior North Korean ruling party official Kim Yong-chol at the closing ceremony, Sanders said there are no such plans. Regarding future prospects on dialogue with the North, she said that Washington wants to see signals from North Korea on denuclearization which can be a start for productive talks. She stressed that until that happens, there won't be much dialogue with Pyongyang.
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2018-02-24
News
- S. Korean Women's Curling Team Beats Japan to Advance to Finals
- The South Korean women’s curling team has advanced to the finals at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics with a 8-7 win over Japan on Friday. In the semifinals held at the Gangneung Curling Center, the quartet led by skip Kim Eun-jung, defeated Japan in a tight match after an extra end in the round robin. With the triumph, South Korea secured at least a silver medal. It's the first time a South Korean curling team, men or women, has made it to an Olympics final. South Korea will take on fifth-ranked Sweden in the finals at 9:05 a.m. on Sunday, the last day of the Olympics.
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2018-02-23
News
