Olympics 2018: Despite Korea crisis: Hörmann believes in safe winter games

DOSB President Alfons Hörmann believes that, despite renewed rising tensions between North Korea and the USA, the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang are safe and secure “I assume that the region around the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be so safe that there will be no more question marks”, Hörmann announced on request from SID. The games will take place from 9. till 25. February of next year.

The DOSB trusts the experts from the IOC, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the German Embassy in South Korea,”with whom we have been in constant exchange for weeks and with whom we have been monitoring the situation very closely”, said Hörmann. At the moment there are no objections from this side.

Hörmann emphasized that for the DOSB “the safety of the entire Team Germany is the top priority”. It is also an important signal, Hörmann said, that “the United Nations General Assembly recently unanimously adopted the resolution on the Olympic Truce in time for these games, especially as it is also supported by North Korea and the USA”. We will continue to “work every day to fulfil our special responsibility in this area”.

Recently, German athletes had also increasingly considered abandoning the Winter Games, which are to take place not far from the border between North and South Korea. A renewed launch of a North Korean intercontinental missile had triggered worldwide protests on Wednesday. North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-Un explained that the weapons will now be able to reach cities throughout the entire US territory.