Page 320 - 2018 Defense White Paper

Special Appendix 3
Support for the 2018 PyeongChang

Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

1. About the Games

In 2018, the 23 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
rd
were held in PyeongChang, Gangneung, Gangwon
Province for 17 days from February 9 to 25, then in
Jeongseon, Gangneung for 10 days from March 9 to 18,
2018. By hosting the 2018 games, the ROK became the
fifth country to host four major international sports events,
The official logo of the games were inspired by
the other three being the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic the shape of Korean alphabets “Ƃ” and “ſ”
Games, the 2002 Korea–Japan World Cup, and the 2011
IAAF World Championships in Daegu. The PyeongChang
games was the largest winter Olympic Games to date,

with 2,920 athletes participating from 92 countries (and
590 athletes from 49 countries for the Paralympic). The
th
ROK ranked 7 in the Olympic Games (5 gold, 8 silver,
and 4 bronze) and 16th in the Paralympic games (1 gold
Mascots “Suhorang” and “Bandabi.”
and 2 bronze). The MND played an instrumental role by
providing manpower and resources without reserve to help create an economical, culture-promoting, ICT-
driven, and environment-friendly Olympic Games.

2. Preparation

The MND’s goal while providing support for the winter games was to maintain a robust military readiness
posture and to make sure the games would proceed safely and peacefully by conducting security and
counterterrorism operations. In particular, the MND set the focus of its support activities on mobilizing
professionals in areas that require high levels of expertise and that exceed the capacity of volunteers, such

318 Appendix