Olympic Park Stadium Offices Entered 95 Days After Blockade

[Anchor]

Employees from nine sports organizations, including the Korea Handball Federation, have entered the Handball Gymnasium at Olympic Park alongside police and a special counsel team from the election commission. This comes 95 days after the facility was blockaded following a ballot paper shortage during the June 3 local elections.

Reporter An Huijae has the details.

[Reporter]

This morning (September 8), at the Handball Gymnasium in Seoul's Olympic Park, tents and various attachments were dismantled as the doors were unlocked shortly afterward.

Employees from nine sports organizations affiliated with the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee—including the handball and fencing federations—entered the stadium with the cooperation of the police.

This marks 95 days since citizens protesting the ballot paper shortage during the local elections on June 5 blockaded the ballot-counting station.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee has repeatedly appealed that the situation has caused severe disruptions to national team training and competition preparations.

With the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan opening on the 19th and early admissions for university physical education departments approaching, the committee concluded it could no longer delay and proceeded with re-entry after consultations with the police.

Under police control, employees from the sports organizations scattered to retrieve work computers and competition-related supplies.

[Kim Dae-nyun / Secretary General, Korean Sport & Olympic Committee: We have faced many difficulties, but now that we have retrieved our equipment and documents, we will thoroughly review them and work to ensure there are no disruptions in operating our athletes.]

Access remained restricted to the area where approximately 2.5 million ballot papers are stored.

Police stated that the special counsel team led by Lee Tae-han and officials from the National Election Commission entered first to take necessary measures.

[Woo Jong-hwa / Head of Security Division, Seoul Songpa Police Station: The special counsel and election commission officials moved to the location where the ballots are stored and completed the necessary safety measures...]

Police deployed 28 riot squads today, and while some protesters gathered, it was reported that there were no major physical clashes.

(Video by Kim Seung-tae | Video Editing by Kim Jun-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.