Korean Winter Olympics region changes name to avoid confusion

The South Korean region that will host the 2018 Winter Olympics has decided to rebrand itself amid fears that it will be mistaken for the capital of North Korea.

Pyeongchang county, which is set to host the 2018 Games, has opted to capitalise the ‘c’ in its name in order to distinguish itself from North Korea’s capital city, Pyeongyang. The governer of Gangwon-do, the province in which Pyeongchang county is located, was cited as saying that visitors might be confused due to the similarity of the two names. In 2014, Daniel Olomae Ole Sapit, a member of the Maasai tribe in Kenya, was due to attend a UN conference in Pyeongchang but bought a ticket to North Korea by mistake. Local officials and Olympic organisers hope capitalising the ‘c’ in Pyeongchang will help visitors remember the name and avoid any confusion on the location of the Games.

Read more: taipeitimes.com