1. The Foreign Ministry hosted an interagency meeting at the Ministry on July 13 to seek ways to protect the nationals of the Republic of Korea, including athletes, cultural troupes, journalists, cheering squads and businesspeople, who will visit Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Summer Olympics. The meeting, chaired by Ambassador for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Han Dong-man, brought together officials from such relevant government agencies as the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korean Sport Olympic Committee, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the National Police Agency.

2. In his opening remarks at the meeting, Ambassador Han shared with the other officials the outcome of the visit by an interagency delegation to Rio from July 5 to 8 to look into the local safety situation. He also stressed that given the poor public security and healthcare environment in Rio, it is important to make efforts to avoid risk factors and set up a system for protecting ROK nationals in emergency situations.

3. In addition, Ambassador Han asked the athletes and all the other ROK nationals planning to visit Rio to comply with safety regulations in order to prevent themselves from being involved in crimes or contracting diseases.

4. Ahead of the Olympics, the Foreign Ministry will carry out promotional activities to prevent all Korean visitors to Rio from being involved in incidents, accidents or crimes, or from contracting infectious diseases in.

° In early August, the Ministry will conduct a campaign on safe overseas travel at Incheon International Airport; offer safety education; distribute relevant promotional brochures; post safety notices at its website on safe overseas travel at www.0404.go.kr; send out SMSs; and open a skype community for “safe travel during the Rio Olympics.”

° A temporary consular office will be in operation from August 4 till 22 to offer assistance to Korean visitors who get involved in incidents or accidents in Rio and help prevent them from being involved in crimes and contracting infectious diseases during the Olympics in August.

° The Foreign Ministry will also dispatch a consular assistance team to Rio during the Paralympics from September 6 to 18 to protect ROK nationals. Ahead of the Paralympics, safety education will be provided to athletes, cheering squads and journalists.

5. At the aforementioned meeting, the Foreign Ministry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drew up comprehensive, appropriate measures to better ensure the safety of Korean visitors to Rio and will implement them in a way that befits the local public security and healthcare conditions.

° In a bid to brace for such large-scale disasters as terrorist attacks, other than usual incidents and accidents, the ROK government will step up cooperation with the relevant Brazilian authorities and share relevant information with the US and the UK as well as Control Risk, a global private company on crisis response.


* unofficial translation