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North Korea stays away from the Olympic Games in China

Nordkorea has canceled its participation in the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. The reasons for this are “measures by hostile forces” and “the global pandemic,” according to a letter sent by the National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports in Pyongyang to those responsible in China. The North Korean sports officials have already been banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until the end of 2022. However, the IOC had kept the possibility of participation for North Korean athletes and an early lifting of the ban open. With the suspension, the organization from Lausanne had punished North Korea for not taking part in the 2021 Summer Games in the Japanese capital Tokyo. In doing so, the country has violated its obligations under the Olympic Charter, according to the IOC. The lockdown resulted in North Korea losing its entitlement to money from the IOC that had not yet been paid out due to international sanctions. North Korea is also currently unable to participate in IOC aid programs.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

The renewed cancellation is a setback for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is trying to get talks with Pyongyang going on a declaration of peace, i.e. a formal end to the Korean War, before he leaves in March. The government in Seoul originally hoped that the Olympic Games in Beijing, as it did in their own country in 2018, would pave the way for intra-Korean rapprochement and also serve as a platform for talks with Chinese and American diplomats. The latter had already failed when American President Joe Biden declared a diplomatic boycott of the Games in December. But with a view to North Korean participation, the South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong had already admitted in December that the “chance is getting smaller”.

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The 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang were a historic moment for inter-Korean relations. Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North Korean ruler, was the first member of the Kim Dynasty to travel to the south and attended the opening ceremony. They were games full of symbols of rapprochement. Kim Yo-jong stood up for the South Korean national anthem, even though it is banned in her country, and she applauded the arrival of the joint team of the two Koreas. Kim brought a letter from her brother to President Moon Jae-in. The first inter-Korean summit since 2007 took place just two months later. It laid the basis for two further meetings between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in and for meetings between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

China has played a role in Korean sports diplomacy in the past. According to Kim Jong Un biographer Anna Fifield, North Korea’s participation in Pyeongchang was prepared for secret meetings of diplomats from both countries on the sidelines of soccer games in China. In the same year, IOC President Thomas Bach also traveled to Pyongyang to meet with ruler Kim Jong-un. He is said to have spoken about his enthusiasm for basketball.

North Korea had already justified the absence of the Olympic Games in Tokyo with the corona virus and concerns about the health of its athletes. It had turned down vaccine offers from the IOC. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has kept its borders largely closed and has isolated itself even more internationally than before. The North Korean ambassador handed over the letter of rejection to China in Beijing on Wednesday, the official news agency KCNA reported on Friday. “We support the Chinese comrades in all their endeavors to hold brilliant and wonderful games,” it says. At the same time, the diplomatic boycott of the United States and other countries is criticized. It is “an insult to the spirit of the Olympic Charter” and “blunt steps against China to prevent a successful opening of the Games”.

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