The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, which are approaching their end, have so far been free of any major crime committed against a non-Korean Olympic fan. Pictured is the crowds at the Gangneung Olympic Park in Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province, on Feb. 22.
By Korea.net PyeongChang Olympics Team
The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games have been “crime-free” Olympics.
The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency announced that crime statistics that it gathered between Feb. 1 and 24 across the three host cities in Gangwon-do Province — Pyeongchang, Gangneung and Jeongseon — showed that there had been no crimes reported committed against non-Korean tourists or Olympic fans.
Instead, during the Olympic period, there had only been crimes committed by non-Korean visitors, like attempted car theft, property damage, intrusion at Olympic venues and being heavily under the influence of alcohol in public, the police agency said.
Tourists enjoy some busking at the Gangneung Olympic Park in Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province, on Feb. 22, during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
The agency attributed the Olympic Games coming to an end as a “zero-violence” safe festival to there being a matured civic consciousness across the region, and said that most non-Korean visitors felt that the Olympic cities were some of the safest places ever.
It also added that as many as 11,000 officers had been on duty around the clock at the athletes’ villages, media centers and Olympic facilities since the Olympic Games started. The policing plan that they had mapped out thoroughly in the months leading up to the Olympic Games paid off, the agency said.
“The PyeongChang Games were safer than any other Olympic Games before,” the agency’s chief, Won Kyung-hwan, said. “We’ll go all out to have a perfect police presence across the host cities during the upcoming Paralympic Games, too, so that the PyeongChang Games can be remembered as the most successful ever.”
