Aju Business Daily

SEOUL, Feb. 01 (Aju News) -- A truce wall will be unveiled at the athletes' village for South Korea's first Winter Olympic next week to convey a message of peace through sport, organizers said Thursday.

The three-meter-high concrete mural designed by South Korean artist Yi Je-seok will be filled with signatures from athletes when organizers unveil it on Monday in a ceremony to be attended by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.

Yi has said he was inspired by Pope Francis' message that building bridges, not walls, encourages relations among people. The IOC has set up the monument since the 2006 Turin Winter Games to inherit the spirit of ancient Greece, which stopped conflicts to allow safe travel to and from the Olympic Games,

In November last year, the U.N. General Assembly adopted an "Olympic Truce" resolution to ensure safe passage for all participants in the Olympics, urging member states to observe the resolution from seven days before the start of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang until seven days after the end of the Paralympic Games.