SEOUL, March 9 (Xinhua) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday that the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were a big gift to his country as it is leading to peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Moon made the remarks during a reception event in PyeongChang, the country's east county where the Paralympics is scheduled to start with an opening ceremony at 8 p.m. Friday local time (1100 GMT), according to the Blue House.
"Above all, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics was successfully held as a peace Olympic, which is a very big gift to the Republic of Korea (ROK)," said Moon referring to the official name of South Korea.
He said a small peace, which began with the creation of a joint women's ice hockey team between the two Koreas, the first inter-Korean Olympic team, during the Olympic period, was snowballing bigger at a rapid pace.
The two Koreas fielded the joint Olympic team and marched together during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics held in February.
The Winter Paralympic Games are scheduled to kick off Friday night and last till March 18. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will participate in the Paralympics as in the Winter Olympics.
Moon said the two Koreas agreed to hold the summit meeting in late April and that U.S. President Donald Trump promised to meet top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un by May.
The Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and peace is becoming a reality, said Moon who believed that efforts for peace through the Olympics and Paralympics in PyeongChang would create a new world peace.
Chung Eui-yong, top security adviser for Moon, met Trump in Washington to brief the U.S. president on his visit to Pyongyang earlier this week.
Chung said in a statement that he told Trump about Kim's eagerness to meet the U.S. president as soon as possible, and Trump told Chung that he would meet the DPRK leader by May to achieve permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The two Koreas already agreed to hold a summit in late April at Peace House, a South Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the two Koreas.
If held as agreed upon, Kim will become the first DPRK leader to set foot on South Korean soil.
