Officers in Charge of Athletes’ Apartments

Military officers appointed head of each unit in Athletes’ Village.

Military officers from Army, Navy, and Air Force are deployed at each apartment unit in Athletes’ Village for Busan Asian Games for security purposes. They, assigned to 20 units, command certain number of troops, and take charge of the village security and safety around the clock. The reason for deploying officers comes from a limitation volunteers have: volunteers cannot patrol 24 hours a day.

Most of interpreters for VIPs are also military personnel. Considering the safety and security of VIPs, the government mobilizes military human sources due to their clear backgrounds. Military men and women are also found in doping test department and medical department. The total number of military officers and solders mobilized reaches up to 600.

But the support from the Army is not limited to the human resources. The Central Committee has also borrowed a huge volume of materials from the Army ranging from blankets to pillows to airplanes. In terms of the number of items borrowed, it stands to 65,000, including 18,000 blankets, 15,000 pillows, numerous trucks and buses, and transportation planes.

One committee member said, “If computing the wages and rents we would have paid for the agents and equipment the Army has lent to us, the total would have been millions of dollars. By securing the support and aid of the Army, we have saved a lot of budget. It would be fair to say ‘Asian Games = Ministry of Defense-Supported Games.’”

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com