The KCDC, which is part of South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare, has operated an Olympic Task Force since September with the aim of preventing and effectively responding to all kinds of contagious diseases that may spread in the home nation or which may come in from other areas of the world during Pyeongchang 2018.

"We're sparing no effort to make next year's Pyeongchang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games a sporting event that is free of infectious diseases and where you can feel safe," Jeong told Korea.net.

"Come visit Korea with no worries in 2018.

"To make the Pyeongchang Games as safe as possible, we've established a system of dealing with potential diseases of all kinds through a whole-scale process of inspection, diagnosis, epidemiological investigations and patient management.

"We're doing our best so that anyone from anywhere in the world can come visit Korea at ease."

Jeong's pledge comes at a time when concerns around the spread of bird flu remain prevalent.

Earlier this week, a chicken farm in Gyeonggi Province, located 77 kilometres from Pyeongchang, reported a suspected case of avian influenza.

Yonhap reports that it has prompted quarantine officials to impose a temporary ban on poultry transportation in the region.

The farm in Pocheon reported that about 30 birds have died since Tuesday (January 2).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the preliminary test showed that they were infected with avian influenza.

In order to prevent further spread of the highly-contagious virus, the Government intends to cull all remaining chickens and conduct inspections into farms within 3km of the affected region.

In November, farmers in areas close to venues due to be used at Pyeongchang 2018 were urged by local officials to cull all poultry in an attempt to prevent the spread of bird flu.

An outbreak of the disease was confirmed at a duck farm in North Jeolla province, located 214km from Pyeongchang, and forced authorities to act to ensure it does not reach cities which are set to host Winter Olympic and Paralympic events.

Officials are hoping to contain the spread to avoid the possibility of an outbreak during the Games, which would be seen as an embarrassment for organisers and South Korea.

A Government official in Gangneung told the Korea JoongAng Daily that there would be "serious consequences" if avian flu did break out during the Olympics.

Jeong says that when Pyeongchang 2018 begins next month, the KCDC will dispatch an on-the-spot response team, as well as epidemiologic investigators, while running an emergency station 24 hours a day to immediately deal with any outbreak of any disease.

"As we expect a massive influx of visitors from around the world before and during the Olympic Games, we require all visitors to go into quarantine that detects any abnormal heat in their body temperature, in an effort to prevent infections from coming in," she told Korea.net.

"We also require those who travel here from countries that are highly exposed to any infectious diseases that the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated as requiring monitoring, that they fill in a health questionnaire so that we can figure out any related symptoms with each traveller or athlete.

"We'll also look into diseases that have broken out in each participating country and share those results with medical institutions here.

"When visitors from each country show any certain symptoms upon their arrival, we'll put an inspection and diagnosis system into operation to swiftly detect any further symptoms or signs.

"In addition to all this, efforts will be made to promote how to deal with infectious viruses, and we'll run a #1339 hot line to receive patients."