By Sohn JiAe

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon has said that the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games mirrored changing values across Korean society, revealing less obsession with winning first place and more emphasis on the process -- on the people, on diversity and on social evolution -- rather than on mere results.

The prime minister was speaking during the ninth Cabinet meeting at the Government Complex Seoul on Feb. 27. He noted how the Seoul 1988 Olympic Summer Games demonstrated an ideological easing in society and helped to bring the Cold War to an end. Similarly, he said the PyeongChang Games, too, represent the way in which the nation is assenting to social evolution, rather than being obsessed with the past and refusing to change, and the way in which it is endeavoring to set a new definition for society.

He then emphasized that the PyeongChang Games have achieved the government’s goals of making the Games “peaceful, both affordable and beneficial to the local economy, technologically advanced, supportive of the arts and traditions, and to make them a healing factor to cure us from the influence-peddling scandal under the previous administration.”

“The peacefulness, the economic aspects, the tech, the cultural aspects and the soothing balm offered by the Olympic Games are just now beginning,” said the prime minister, as he mentioned the upcoming PyeongChang Paralympic Winter Games that kick off on March 9.

He stressed that the success of the Paralympic Games would echo the success of the Olympic Games as a whole. “The mature ability to successfully host the PyeongChang Games that the nation has now shown to the world won't be fully recognized until the success of the Paralympic Games.”

jiae5853@korea.kr