Anchor: The UN General Assembly has adopted a symbolic resolution calling for a truce during the upcoming 2018 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The resolution was adopted by consensus on Monday at the 72nd General Assembly.
Alannah Hill has the details.
Report: The UN General Assembly has adopted a symbolic resolution calling for a truce around the period of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in PyeongChang.
The resolution, “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal,” was adopted by consensus without voting on Monday at the 72nd General Assembly.
It specifically asks member states “to ensure the safe passage, access and participation of athletes, officials and all other accredited persons taking part in the Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games.”
Introducing the resolution, Lee Hee-beom, the president and CEO of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee said the truce begins seven days before the opening of the Olympic Games and concludes on the seventh day after the closing of the Paralympic Games.
[Soundbite: Lee Hee-beom – President and CEO, PyeongChang Organizing Committee (English)]
“The Olympic truce is to ensure a safe passage of the athletes and all other Olympic credited personnel when they travel to and from the Olympic Games. The resolution also signifies the UN Assembly's, UN General Assembly strong wish that the PyeongChang Games will provide the window of opportunity to foster an environment conducive to building and sustaining peace on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia."
Olympic figure skating champion and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Honorary Ambassador Kim Yuna urged member nations to adopt the resolution.
[Sound bite: Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yuna (English)]
"I firmly believe that PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will help spread the message of peace through one of the few languages that has the power to unite people around the world, the graceful and universal language of sport. Indeed Pyeongchang represents perhaps the most sincere effort to cross the frozen border between South and North and to foster a peaceful environment.”
Since 1993, the Truce Resolution has been adopted every two years ahead of the Summer and Winter Olympics to cease all conflicts during the period of the games.
The PyeongChang Olympics are slated to run from February ninth to 25th and the Paralympics from March ninth to 18th of next year.
Alannah Hill, KBS World Radio News.