'PyeongChang Games ushered in Korea peace process'

In this March 7, 2018, file photo, people watch a TV screen showing images of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, center, and U.S. President Donald Trump at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. AP-Yonhap

President Moon Jae-in said Saturday the upcoming second North Korea-U.S. summit is a "miracle-like" gift stemming from the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, celebrating the first anniversary of South Korea's successful hosting of the global sports event.

Many agree that North Korea's participation in the games was sort of a starting point of a peace mood on the peninsula after yearslong military tensions.

The Koreas even fielded a unified ice hockey team.

"A small snowball we rolled together (in the PyeongChang Games) has become a snowman of peace," Moon wrote on his SNS accounts.

He cited his three rounds of summit talks with the North's leader Kim Jong-un last year.

Kim met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.

Moon noted that the two leaders plan to have a second meeting in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28.

"All (of those) are steps for peace and a miracle-like gift that PyeongChang gave us," Moon said. "It seems that I still feel the shouts and fever that filled PyeongChang."

He pointed out peace is not achieved overnight as it requires a steady process.

He stressed the need to talk and think ceaselessly about peace.

Attending a ceremony to mark the anniversary in the eastern town of PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon also said the Olympics have changed "impossible to possible."

He described the PyeongChang Games as one of the most successful Winter Olympics in history.

"The PyeongChang Olympics were a success history like a miracle and shifted the Korean Peninsula from tension to peace," Lee said. (Yonhap)