US confident in Olympics security despite NKorea tensions

WASHINGTON – The United States says it’s not aware of any specific threat to the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea and is confident that American athletes, coaches and spectators will be safe, despite nuclear tensions with North Korea.

State Department officials overseeing security for the U.S. Olympic team said Wednesday that they had planned for all threat contingencies in preparation for the Pyeongchang Games that begin next week.

They said roughly 100 Diplomatic Security agents would be deployed to Seoul and two sites in Pyeongchang. That’s about the same as have been sent to previous Olympics.

The U.S. Olympic delegation will number about 275 and an estimated 60,000 Americans are expected to attend the games.

North Korea is participating in the games. They begin on February 9.