PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- International Paralympic Committee will pay tribute to late British scientist Stephen Hawking during the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, officials here said Thursday.IPC President Andrew Parsons will deliver a message paying tribute to Hawking, a theoretical physicist who died Wednesday at age 76, during the closing ceremony on Sunday, according to IPC communications director Craig Spence."Sometimes in society there is a wrong perception t

A slew of live performances will be taking place before the closing of the 2018 Winter Paralympics. K-pop performances featuring B1A4, BTOB, Samuel and others are to start Thursday at 5 p.m. at Gangneung-Wonju National University. On Saturday, the day before the closing of the Paralympic Games, an electronic dance music festival led by DJ Glory will be held at Yongpyong Resort for some 500 people. The festival will include chicken-and-beer parties. Poster of the Snow Festival in March (Photo cou

Just like the well-received PyeongChang Olympics, South Korea has vowed to make the ongoing PyeongChang Paralympics a cultural event as much as it is a sporting event. True to the host nation’s pledge to make the events a “culture Olympics and Paralympics,” 600 culture-related programs have taken place or are slated to occur during the Paralympic Games in Gangwon Province, to end Sunday.South Korea boasts a rich culture embedded within its more than 4,000 year history, which PyeongChang is eager

SEOUL/PAJU -- North Korean athletes and officials at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics returned home Thursday after participating in a winter Paralympic Games for the first time.The North's 20-member athletic delegation and four-member team of National Paralympic Committee officials crossed the border at 1:50 p.m., according to a pool report.With smiles on their faces, the North Koreans did not answer at a border checkpoint when asked by pool reporters about how it was to participate in the Par

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- South Korea failed to reach the men's ice sledge hockey finals at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics after suffering a 7-0 loss to Canada on Thursday.The men's team was blanked by top-ranked Canada at Gangneung Hockey Centre in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. With the latest result, South Korea extended its losing streak against Canada to 17 games. South Korean ice sledge hockey players compete in the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics ice hockey semifinals match against

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- South Korea has reached the semifinals of the wheelchair curling competition at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics on Thursday.The team of Seo Soon-seok, Bang Min-ja, Cha Jae-goan, Jung Seung-won and Lee Dong-ha beat Britain 5-4 in their 10th qualifying match at the PyeongChang Paralympics. South Korean wheelchair curlers celebrate after they beat Britain 5-4 in a round-robin match at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics at Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, Gang

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- The North Korean delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics left the athletes' village here Thursday to return home.The 24-member delegation, led by Kim Mun-chol, the head of the Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled, departed from the athletes' living quarters in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul, around 9:30 a.m. aboard sedans and a bus prepared by the South Korean government. The North Koreans arrived in South Korea on March 7

South Korean speed skater Kim Bo-reum, who won silver in the women‘s mass start at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, has been hospitalized for psychological treatment, along with her mother, the athlete’s agency said Wednesday. Bravo and New said Kim visited a hospital in her hometown of Daegu on Monday, and a doctor advised hospitalization after she showed symptoms of anxiety disorder. Kim‘s mother showed similar symptoms and was recommended for hospitalization, it added. Kim was at the center o

More than 320,000 tickets have been sold four days into the 10-day Paralympics in PyeongChang, overtaking the total sales of the 2014 Sochi Paralympics, which sold around 316,000 tickets in total. Lee Hee-beom, the president of the Organizing Committee for the international sports event, said Wednesday that the sales surpassed the initially anticipated goal by 146 percent. Lee accredited the encouraging sales streak to the people’s increased interest for athletes who have overcome their physical

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- North Korean athletes and officials staying in South Korea for the Winter Paralympics will leave before the weekend's closing ceremony, officials said Wednesday, with representatives from Pyongyang's Paralympic committee returning home ahead of schedule.North Korea sent a 20-member athletic delegation, including skiers Ma Yu-chol and Kim Jong-hyon, to the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, which began last Friday and will wrap up Sunday. Joining them were four offic

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- North Korean athletes finished their last event at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics in South Korea on Wednesday before they return home.Ma Yu-chol and Kim Jong-hyon competed in the men's 1.1 kilometer sprint cross-country skiing event in the sitting category at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics. Ma and Kim finished 31st and 32nd respectively among 36 competitors.Ma clocked in at 3 minutes 59.48 seconds, while Kim had a time of 4:23.87, which was more than a mi

North Koreans expressed doubts about their country’s participants in the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, according to Radio Free Asia, an international radio broadcasting station.A source from North Hamgyeong Province told the RFA that North Korean athletes at the 2018 Paralympic Games were likely to have been “arranged in a hurry by North Korean authorities to utilize the Winter Games for international propaganda.” North Korean skiers Ma Yu-chol (left) and Kim Jong-hyon practice at the Alpensia

PYEONGCHANG -- Ticket sales for the PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games have surpassed more than 320,000, a record for the most tickets sold at a Winter Paralympics, the organizers of the multisport event said Tuesday.The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Games said ticket sales for the PyeongChang Paralympics had reached 320,531 as of Monday, and it has surpassed the 316,200 tickets sold for the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics. The ticket sales for the PyeongChang

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon Province -- South Korea's ice sledge hockey team suffered a 8-0 loss to the United States at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games on Tuesday.The men's national team was thrashed by the Americans at Gangneung Hockey Centre in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, in their last match in Group B. Despite the defeat, South Korea has reached the semifinals as the runner-up in Group B, which also features Japan and the Czech Republic. South Korea previously beat Japan 4-1 and edged the Cz

EUISEONG, North Gyeongsang Province -- When Kim Eun-jung, the skip for the women's curling team that won silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics, was told she would be a cauldron lighter for the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, she couldn't believe it. Kim thought she wasn't qualified, considering her status, but she was wrong. "I doubted when I first heard it," Kim said to Yonhap News Agency on Monday. "It was something that Kim Yu-na did (at the Olympics), and I had nothing to show. I was really sur