Greece passes Olympic flame to organizers of 2018 Games

The Olympic flame was handed to organizers of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games on Tuesday, and it will now head off on a 100-day journey across South Korea before the opening ceremony on February 9.

Pyeongchang organizing committee president Lee Hee-beom said the games would be an Olympics of "peace and harmony," despite tension between the host and its reclusive nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea.

Dressed as a high priestess, actress Katerina Lehou led the 90-minute ceremony in Athens at the Panathenian Stadium, a horseshoe-shaped marble venue where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.

A cauldron was lit by Greek skier Ioannis Proios following performances by singers, dancers and acrobats from Greece and South Korea. The flame, placed in a lantern, was handed over to Greek Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos, who passed it to Lee.

The South Korean...