NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 19, 2018

Q: The Winter Olympics, which end next Sunday, bring rare contacts between South Korea -- site of the games -- and its northern neighbor. They have a combined women's hockey team and athletes who entered under a unified flag. North Korean musicians and cheerleaders also are there. Where is South Korea?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The Olympics, under way since Feb. 9, take place in and around what host city?

A. Seoul

B. PyeongChang

C. Incheon

D. Pyongyang


B. Competitions among athletes from more than 90 nations are held in and near PyeongChang (pronounced pyah-ONG-ch-AH-ng and rhyming with gong). It's in South Korea's northeastern portion, about 80 miles from the capital (Seoul).

The similar-sounding last choice -- Pyongyang -- is the capital of North Korea.


Q: Tensions between the neighbors date back to a 1950-53 war. Since then, North Korea has had what type of government?

A. Libertarian

B. Parliamentary

C. Dictatorship

D. Confederation


C. North Korea uses a misleading name -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- for its one-party dictatorship. The socialist country is led by Kim Jong-un, grandson of North Korea's founder. He became "supreme leader" when his father died in 2011.


Q: North Korea is strengthened by trade and other support from what country in the region?

A. China

B. Japan

C. India

D. Indonesia


A. China, a Communist power, shares an 880-mile border with North Korea and is a vital ally -- although the Chinese government voices concern about its neighbor's development of nuclear weapons.


Q: South Korea also has an influential ally in the region. Name it.

A. Thailand

B. Laos

D. Singapore

D. Japan


D. Japan and South Korea are close neighbors and main allies of the United States in Northeast Asia. The government in Tokyo (Japan's capital) says South Korea is "the most important neighbor that shares strategic interests with Japan."