The 2018 Winter Olympic Games officially kicked off with an opening ceremony taking place in South Korean city of Pyeongchang on Friday.

Some visitors of the event were unable to print their tickets in advance as the attack forced the organizers to shut down the website of the Games to prevent further damage, the Yonhap news agency reported.

READ MORE: Let the Games Begin: Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Start Prior to Opening Ceremony

The website resumed its operation around 8:00 a.m. local time (23:00 GMT, Friday). </s> PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People's Republic Of - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement Wednesday that the countries planned to jointly bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

At a major summit, the two leaders gave no details of which cities might host certain events at the games, or how advanced the plans were.

The International Olympic Committee traditionally does not announce host cities until seven years ahead of the games. That would give the Koreas until 2025 to put together a joint bid.

Germany has already announced plans for a multi-city bid for 2032, as has Brisbane, Australia. The India Olympic Committee has also indicated its interest in hosting the 2032 Games.

A successful bid by the Koreas would mark the second time South Korea hosted or co-hosted the Summer Games, the first being 1988 in Seoul. South Korea also hosted the Pyeongchang Winter Games in February.

Asia also features in the next two Olympics -- the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, which also hosted the summer version in 2008. </s> PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement Wednesday that the countries planned to jointly bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

At a major summit, the two leaders gave no details of which cities might host certain events at the games, or how advanced the plans were.

The International Olympic Committee traditionally does not announce host cities until seven years ahead of the games. That would give the Koreas until 2025 to put together a joint bid.

Germany has already announced plans for a multi-city bid for 2032, as has Brisbane, Australia. The India Olympic Committee has also indicated its interest in hosting the 2032 Games.

A successful bid by the Koreas would mark the second time South Korea hosted or co-hosted the Summer Games, the first being 1988 in Seoul. South Korea also hosted the Pyeongchang Winter Games in February.

Asia also features in the next two Olympics — the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, which also hosted the summer version in 2008. </s> North and South Korea will jointly pursue a bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics, representatives announced in a news conference Wednesday in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The bid is part of a larger move toward peace on the Korean Peninsula, with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreeing on the first steps toward denuclearization and peace. No immediate details about the Olympic bid, such as which cities would host it, were revealed.

South Korea hosted the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, with athletes from the two countries forming a unified team. A successful 2032 bid would bring the Summer Games to the peninsula for the first time since Seoul hosted the 1988 competition.

Brisbane, Australia, plans to bid for the 2032 Games and Germany has announced plans for a multi-city bid. Tokyo will host the 2020 Games, which move to Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028. Beijing is the site of the 2022 Winter Olympics. </s> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement Wednesday that the countries planned to jointly bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

At a major summit, the two leaders gave no details of which cities might host certain events at the games, or how advanced the plans were.

The International Olympic Committee traditionally does not announce host cities until seven years ahead of the games. That would give the Koreas until 2025 to put together a joint bid.

Germany has already announced plans for a multi-city bid for 2032, as has Brisbane, Australia. The India Olympic Committee has also indicated its interest in hosting the 2032 Games.

A successful bid by the Koreas would mark the second time South Korea hosted or co-hosted the Summer Games, the first being 1988 in Seoul. South Korea also hosted the Winter Games in Pyeongchang in February.

Asia also features in the next two Olympics — the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, which also hosted the summer version in 2008. </s> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement Wednesday that the countries planned to jointly bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

At a major summit, the two leaders gave no details of which cities might host certain events at the games, or how advanced the plans were.

The International Olympic Committee traditionally does not announce host cities until seven years ahead of the games. That would give the Koreas until 2025 to put together a joint bid.

Germany has already announced plans for a multi-city bid for 2032, as has Brisbane, Australia. The India Olympic Committee has also indicated its interest in hosting the 2032 Games.

A successful bid by the Koreas would mark the second time South Korea hosted or co-hosted the Summer Games, the first being 1988 in Seoul. South Korea also hosted the Pyeongchang Winter Games in February.

Asia also features in the next two Olympics — the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, which also hosted the summer version in 2008. </s> North and South Korea have agreed to seek to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

The announcement was made at a news conference held Wednesday in Pyongyang, North Korea. That revelation was part of a much larger development toward peace on the Korean peninsula, where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to new steps to denuclearize.

As far as the 2032 Summer Olympics is concerned, the two Korean leaders gave no details of which cities might host events or how advanced the plans were.

If the two nations move forward with a bid for the 2032 Games, it could bring the Summer Olympics to the Korean peninsula for the first time since 1988, when Seoul was host. Of course, the 2018 Winter Olympics were hosted by South Korea in PyeongChang, where athletes from North and South Korea formed a unified Olympic team.

Tokyo (2020), Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) are slated to host the next three Summer Olympics. Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Germany has already announced plans for a multi-city bid for 2032, as has Brisbane, Australia. The India Olympic Committee has also indicated its interest in hosting the 2032 Games. </s> The PyeongChang Olympics have ended with a spectacular closing ceremony that once again saw athletes from North and South Korea marching together.

Preceded by months of mounting tension between North and South Korea and the US, the Games ended with a softening of relations between the two Korean countries, who competed under a united flag.

"The Olympic Winter Games at Pyeongchang has come to an end, but the time of peace will continue," Korean president Moon Jae-in said in closing remarks distributed by the organizing committee ahead of the closing ceremony.

The showpiece attracted a crowd of 35,000 spectators, including dignitaries such as US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, to the Pyeongchang Olympic stadium.

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Both Korean countries competed as one team in the women's hockey and marched under a unified flag at the opening and closing ceremonies.

North Korea also sent cheerleaders and musicians to the Games, while Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attended the opening ceremony and met with Moon.

The closing ceremony started with the Olympic Stadium aglow with lights, and the crowd counting down together to say "one," when performers representing the athletes entered the stadium.

It also featured traditional and contemporary Korean dance, music, puppets, a giant turtle -- a sacred animal in Korea -- and finished with a thumping dance party for the athletes.

"This celebration of peace that began at Pyeongchang will continue on to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games and the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games," said Moon.

"Here in Korea, we will continue our endeavor to broaden the horizon of peace that began in Pyeonchang."

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told the crowd: "The Olympic Games of PyeongChang 2018 are the games of new horizons."

He thanked the athletes for their "competitive spirit and fair play" and told the PyeongChang organizing committee: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Addressing Korean President Moon, Bach said: "Thank you for your personal commitment and determination to make these Games so successful in every way."

In remarks distributed by organizers before the closing ceremony, Bach had said: "We have seen here how sport can make the world a better place.

"The way in which the DPRK athletes have been received by their fellow athletes and by the crowds shows the Olympic spirit in action."

Bach ended his speech by bringing athletes from the five continents on to the stage, which included Lindsey Vonn of the US, the world's most successful female ski racer of all time, and Tongan flag bearer Pita Taufatofua.

The 23rd Winter Olympics, the first in South Korea since the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, passed by without any major scandals or organizational hiccups, though there were some sporadic cases of doping.

Earlier Sunday there was controversy after the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) team beat Germany to win the men's ice hockey gold and then sang the Russian national anthem while the Olympic song was being played at the medal ceremony against IOC stipulations.

The IOC had banned Russia from competing in the Winter Games because of state-sponsored doping before and during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Instead, the IOC allowed 168 Russian athletes to compete as the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) team under a neutral flag, provided they could prove there were clean.

Although two Russian athletes on the OAR team tested positive for banned substances during the Games, the IOC on Sunday ruled it will lift the country's Olympic ban, provided there aren't any more doping cases from its athletes in Pyeongchang.

However, the IOC did not allow the OAR team to march under the Russian flag in the closing ceremony.

In the first week of the Games, the weather took center stage as high winds wreaked havoc with the schedule, ending the multiple gold medal hopes of US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin, who leaves Pyeongchang with one gold and one silver.

Over 3,000 athletes from 92 countries had competed for 102 gold medals, helped by some 20,000 volunteers.

Women provided the breakout performances of the Games, with an unknown Czech athlete, Ester Ledecka, taking center stage as she became the first person to triumph in two different sports at a Winter Olympics when she followed up her shock win in the super-G alpine skiing with gold in the snowboarding parallel slalom.

Although the 22-year-old Ledecka was the fifth athlete to win in two sports at one Games, she was the first to do it in two completely different events as the previous double wins had been achieved in Nordic ski competitions.

Bjoergen bows out as greatest of all time

The last event of the Olympics, the women's cross-country 30-kilometer mass start (classic) was won, perhaps fittingly, by Marit Bjoergen, who ended her Olympic career as the greatest winter Olympian of all time.

Waving the Norwegian flag and with a beaming smile on her face as she crossed the finish line in one hour, 22 minutes and 17.6 seconds, the 37-year-old mother-of-one clinched a record eighth gold medal.

A few hours later, Bjoergen received her gold medal during the closing ceremony in the stadium from IOC president Bach.

It was her fifth medal at the Pyeongchang Games, and her 15th overall. It was also the 39th medal for Norway, a winter Olympic record. Germany was second on the medals table with 31 medals while Canada finished third with 29.

The US sent its biggest ever team but finished in a disappointing fourth place on the medals table with 23 medals, which was well below its target of 37 and its worst performance in 20 years. Great Britain won five medals, its most ever at a Winter Games.

The host nation ended the games in seventh place with 17 medals.

The first part of the closing ceremony featured a young guitarist playing from the highest spot in the stadium, and a solo dancer performing Korea's traditional Spring Dance of Nightingale on the ground stage with the sound of geomungo, a traditional Korean string instrument, resonating through the stadium.

The crowd let out a huge roar when the athletes, many waving flags and dancing with each other, entered the stadium to a live band playing Korean music.

But the biggest cheer was reserved for the unified North and Korean team, who entered the arena together for the second time in 17 days.

The Pyeongchang Games officially ended with the traditional raising of the Greek flag, the lowering of the Olympic flag and the Beijing 2022 flag handover ceremony before the Olympic flame was extinguished. </s> Seoul edges out its rival Busan as South Korea's chosen city to host the 2032 Summer Olympics

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea has picked its capital Seoul for its bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics, which it aims to jointly host with North Korea.

The Koreas will officially inform the International Olympic Committee of their decision to bid at an event in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Friday, February 15.

North Korea is expected to announce its candidate city later this week – the likely choice is its capital Pyongyang – before or during the IOC meeting, Seoul officials told AFP.

The decision to pursue a joint bid – as well as to jointly participate in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games –was made following a series of inter-Korean talks last year, as cross-border reconciliation gathered pace.

In a meeting held by the country's Olympic committee on Monday, February 11, Seoul edged out its rival, the southern port city of Busan.

Seoul mayor Park Won-soon said he would ensure the bid serves as an opportunity to "change the fate of the Korean peninsula".

"If the 1988 Seoul Olympics was 'reconciliation Olympics' amid the cold war between East and West and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics was a touchstone of peace, the 2032 Olympics will be promoted to become the last stop to establish the peace".

The last time Seoul hosted the summer Olympics, in 1988, Pyongyang boycotted the Games.

But in recent months the Koreas have turned to sports diplomacy to ease tensions.

During the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics last year, North Korea sent leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, to express the reclusive regime's interest in an inter-Korean summit.

The unified Korean women's ice hockey team was also a symbol of unity in Pyeongchang, despite losing all their games and finishing last.

Kim Jong Un went on to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in three times in the wake of the Games and held a landmark summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

However, the joint bid poses some difficulties. North Korea is subject to economic sanctions and these are unlikely to be lifted by the UN Security Council unless Pyongyang takes firmer steps toward denuclearization. – Rappler.com
The 23rd Winter Olympic Games start in Pyeongchang, South Korea. It marks the first time that South Korea has hosted the Winter Olympics.