SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea has become the first country to abandon the Tokyo Olympics for fear of the coronavirus, a decision highlighting the challenges facing Japan as it struggles to set up a global sporting event amid a raging pandemic.
A website run by the North Korean Ministry of Sports said its national Olympic Committee decided at a meeting on March 25 not to participate in the Games, to protect athletes from the ‘global public health crisis’ by COVID-19 ‘.
The pandemic has already driven back the Tokyo Games, originally planned for 2020, and organizers have tried to put in place preventative measures, such as banning international spectators, to ensure the safety of athletes and residents.
However, there are still concerns that the Olympics could exacerbate the spread of the virus, and the increasing caseload in Japan and the slow-moving vaccine have raised public questions about whether the Games should be held at all.
The Olympic Committee in Japan said on Tuesday that North Korea had not yet informed it that it would not participate in the Games in Tokyo.
Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s general secretary, said the government hoped many countries would join the Olympics and he promised enough antivirus measures.
South Korea’s Ministry of Unity has expressed regret over the North’s decision, saying it hopes the Tokyo Olympics will provide an opportunity to end relations between Korea, which amid a stalemate in major nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, has improved.
North Korea sent 22 athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, along with government officials, performers, journalists and a cheering group of 230 members.
At the Pyeongchang Games, the North and South Korean athletes jointly drew under a blue card symbolizing a united Korean peninsula, while the red-clad North Korean cheerleaders captured worldwide attention. The Koreas also hosted their first combined Olympic team in women’s hockey, which received passionate support from crowds, although all five lost their matches by a combined score of 28-2.
These games were also very much about politics. The North Korean contingent included the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who conveyed her brother’s desire for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a move that helped the North has to start talks with South Korea and the United States.
Diplomatic efforts have since been on a stalemate, and North Korea’s decision to postpone the Tokyo Olympics is a setback for hopes of reviving it.
While North Korea steadfastly claims that they are not coronavirus, outsiders have expressed doubts as to whether the country has completely escaped the pandemic, given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border it shares with China, its economic lifeline.
North Korea described its anti-virus efforts as a ‘matter of national existence’, severely restricting border traffic, banning tourists, expelling diplomats and mobilizing health workers with tens of thousands of people showing symptoms in quarantine.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had earlier said he expected to invite US President Joe Biden to the Olympics and was prepared to meet with Kim Jong Un or his sister if the Games were attended. However, Suga did not say whether he would invite either of the two.
Experts believe the closure of the pandemic border has further shocked North Korea’s economy, which has already been shattered by decades of mismanagement, aggressive military spending and crippling US sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.
The economic setbacks left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with former President Donald Trump, which derailed differences of opinion in exchange for the release of sanctions and the North’s nuclear disarmament steps.
Kim has vowed in recent political speeches to step up his nuclear deterrent in the face of US-led pressure, and his government has so far rejected the Biden administration’s interruption for talks, demanding that Washington first pursue its ‘hostile’ policies. must abandon.
The North ended a year-long pause in ballistic testing activity last month by firing two short-range missiles off the east coast, continuing the tradition of testing new U.S. administrations with weapons demonstrations aimed at measuring Washington’s response and to reject concessions.
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AP authors Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to the report.