PyeongChang "just cannot put a stop to other cities trying to share the 2018 Winter Olympics with it," according to Nam Hyun-woo of the KOREA TIMES.
The latest challenge came from Gangneung, an adjacent city, whose Mayor Choi Myeong-hee "called on the 2018 host to give the ice hockey event to Wonju." The Games organizers "called the mayor's remarks 'inappropriate.'" POCOG released a statement "slamming the mayor's remarks as 'one-sided and misleading to the public.'" Choi:
"If it is possible to complete the construction of an ice hockey venue in Wonju before a test event scheduled in 2017, I am willing to discuss sharing the event." The remarks "came following Wonju residents' growing demand for designating the city as the venue for the men's ice hockey." Choi: "As the IOC now allows Olympic events to be held outside the host city, there has been a huge change in circumstances." POCOG said that "it requires more than a year just for administrative procedures to use the Taejang-dong site because it is owned by the Ministry of National Defense and protected as a 'green-belt' area" (KOREA TIMES, 1/13).
