There will be no North Korean delegation to the Tokyo Olympics next July. The Sports Ministry confirmed on Tuesday April 6 that North Korea was giving up participating in the Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic. North Korea is waiving the Tokyo Olympics this summer due to the risk of coronavirus infection, the North Korean Sports Ministry said on Tuesday. During a meeting, the North Korean Olympic committee “decided not to participate in the 32nd Olympic Games in order to protect athletes from the global health crisis caused by Covid-19”, it was indicated.
The participation of North Korea, a nuclear power isolated from the rest of the world, in the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, was a decisive factor in the spectacular diplomatic rapprochement that took place in 2018. Kim Yo Jong, sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attended the Games as her brother’s envoy, and the North Korean participation was widely publicized. South Korean President Moon Jae-in seized the opportunity to initiate mediation between Pyongyang and Washington which resulted in historic summits between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.
Pyongyang’s announcement on Tuesday puts an end to Seoul’s hopes of using the 2020 Games, postponed until this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, to spark a revival of the discussion process between Pyongyang and Washington, at the halt since the failure of a Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi in February 2019.
Pyongyang’s waiver announcement, dated Monday, was posted on the Sports Ministry website on Tuesday. She refers to a meeting of the North Korean National Olympic Committee on March 25. The holding of this meeting of the Olympic committee was reported by the official North Korean news agency KCNA without mentioning the decision regarding the Olympic Games.
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