S. Korea adds extra layer of Olympics security amid tensions

Olympics Roundup IOC invites bids to hire cyber security firm

SEOUL, Sept 28, (RTRS): Rattled by rising tensions with North Korea, South Korea is taking extra measures to try to ensure the safety of the 2018 Winter Games, including setting up a crack cyber defence team and doubling the number of troops, according to officials and documents reviewed by Reuters.

The Games take place next February in the mountainous resort town of Pyeongchang, just 80 kms (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border with North Korea.

They come after a series of missile and nuclear tests show the North making rapid advances in its weapons programme and as inflammatory rhetoric between Pyongyang and Washington stirs up concerns about another conflict on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry will deploy some 5,000 armed forces personnel at the Games, double the 2,400 on duty during the 2002 World Cup, which South Korea co-hosted with Japan, according to government officials and documents reviewed by Reuters.

Pyeongchang’s organising committee for the 2018 Games (POCOG) is also selecting a private cyber security company to guard against a hacking attack from the North, tender documents show.

The committee is seeking to fasttrack the selection as tensions rise in the wake of South Korea’s controversial deployment of the US THAAD anti-missile system, and as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un tests weapons at an unprecedented rate.

“Cyber threats have increased due to external factors such as the THAAD deployment and recent North Korean

Ashleigh Barty of Australia celebrates her victory over Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Repubic in their women’s singles quarter-final match at the WTA Wuhan Open tennis tournament in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on Sept 28. (AFP)