Korea starts 50-day countdown to PyeongChang Paralympics

South Korea on Thursday marked the start of the 50-day countdown to the PyeongChang Paralympic Games amid rising expectations for North Korea's first Winter Paralympics appearance.

The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Games held an event to promote the upcoming Paralympics at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul with some 200 guests, including athletes, families and volunteers. Notable attendees included first lady Kim Jung-sook, POCOG President Lee Hee-beom, Vice Sports Minister Roh Tae-kang and Korea Paralympic Committee Chief Lee Myung-ho.

The event came a day after North Korea agreed to send a delegation of some 150 members -- including athletes, an art troupe, cheerleaders and other officials -- to the Paralympics following its meeting with South Korea at the border truce village of Panmunjom. 

"It has a very big meaning that North Korea will make its Winter Paralympic Games debut," first lady Kim said at the Paralympics G-50 Festival. "The PyeongChang Paralympics, which will be held 30 years after the Seoul Paralympics, are going to be the 'Peace Paralympics.'"

At the event, the organizers displayed real medals that will be awarded at the Paralympic Games. Lee Suk-woo, who designed the Olympic medals, also designed the Paralympic medals.

"Under the themes of the Korean alphabet hangeul and PyeongChang's natural environment, the front side of the medal displays the Paralympic Games' symbol of three agitos, and it also has the hangeul consonants for the words 'PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games' engraved around the edge," Lee said. "Unlike the Olympic medals' diagonal lines, horizontal lines were used in the Paralympic medals to emphasize the games' spirit of equality."

The POCOG said its G-50 PyeongChang Paralympics Festival will run until Sunday and will display various items like the Paralympic torch and parasports gear. Visitors can also experience Paralympic winter sports programs at the event.

The POCOG hopes such promotional activities will help increase Paralympic ticket sales. The organizers said 148,000 tickets for the March 9-18 Paralympics had been sold as of Wednesday, which exceeds 67 percent of the sales target.

"We have in mind that the success of the Paralympics completes the Olympics," POCOG President Lee said. "We'll give our best effort to make the PyeongChang Paralympics a festival for everyone."(Yonhap)