Speaking during a plenary session to open the final International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission inspection visit before the Games here, Lee criticised ATRs for the expense of tickets as well as a for a supposed lack of promotion.

He then called for a "high-level meeting" with the IOC to broker a solution.

"As for overseas tickets sales, the ATRs sales activities seems to be neither active nor promotional with too expensive ticket prices in some countries," Lee said.

"In this respect, I would like to propose to have a high-level meeting between IOC and Pyeongchang 2018 during the CoCom Session here in Pyeongchang."

ATR's, appointed to run Olympic ticketing operations in a particular country, have already hit back at Lee's remarks.

"It is not our job to promote the Olympic Games," a representative from one company told insidethegames.

"It is our job to ensure the clients in our territory are able to attend the Games in affordable packages and ensure they don’t get caught purchasing tickets which are not secure."

"We also have no control over pricing, which is determined by Pyeongchang 2018 in consultation with the IOC."

It was claimed that people are currently being put-off attending by expensive hotel prices and concerns over the impact of regional tensions caused by North Korea.

ATRs are also struggling to access some of most highly sought after tickets for figure skating and other ice sports. 

"We would love to sell more but we would like to be allocated more," the representative added.

"We also got our refunds from Rio [2016] so late, which has made a difference as to how many we are able to buy."

Low ticket sales so far has been a major challenge for organisers with less than six months until the Games are due to open on February 9.

It is hoped that numbers will increase from next Tuesday (September 5) following the opening of the online sales process in South Korea.

A total of 1.18 million tickets in total will be printed, with 70 percent of them expected to be sold in the host nation.

Exact numbers of sales so far have not yet been revealed.

"The ticket sales strategy for the full stadia will be actively set in motion with the finalization of the schedule of events and competitions in end-August,"Lee added today.

"And in the beginning of September, we are ready to move forward in full speed."

Lee also outlined work currently taking place to improve the promotion of the first Winter Olympics in South Korea.

This was cited as a key priority by IOC Coordination Commission chair Gunilla Lindberg when speaking today.

"In line with this effort and in order to activate nation-wide engagement and communications, Pyeongchang 2018 has sent out, on August 8, letters of Cooperation for Success to all Local Governments and Education Authorities together with all Public Enterprises and Corporates," Lee said.

"This letter is designed to urge them to proactively engage themselves in the boom-up support of PyeongChang2018 with specific action plans and viable projects including the forth-coming Olympic Torch Relay activities, school education curriculum, and ticket sales promotion.

"At the same time, Pyeongchang 2018, through the above letter, has also requested all local Education Authorities to include the
Games and overall winter sports in the school curriculum as study subjects using the Education Web Portals [of the Organsing Committee].

"In addition, Pyeongchang 2018's directors general as [a] support group have also been dispatched to respective actual localities to meet and explain in detail about the objectives contained in the letter in order to ensure the implementation of the relevant projects in close collaboration with Pyeongchang 2018.

"The good news is that very positive reactions have been reported."