Due to the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea will not participate in the in Tokyo, Japan Olympics that will take place this summer.
The decision was made on March 25 at a meeting of the North Korean Olympic Committee, but
only announced on April 5 on the government website Sports in DPR Korea. The
site claims that the decision not to participate in the Olympics was made
"to protect athletes from the global health crisis caused by
COVID-19". The Olympics, which will start on July 23, were supposed to
take place in the summer of last year but had been postponed due to the
pandemic.
So far, the North
Korean regime has always maintained that there has been no coronavirus
infection in the country, although it is very difficult to believe that this is
true. It is true, however, that the regime intervened very early to limit the
risk of the spread of the virus, adopting some of the most drastic measures in
the world: since February it had suspended flights and trains to and from China
and imposed isolation of 40 days (therefore more than double that of much of
the rest of the world) to those arriving from abroad or having had contact with
those who had been there.
The Tokyo Olympics
will be the first summer Olympics
that North Korea will not participate in since it boycotted the 1984 Games in
Los Angeles, in the United States, and those of 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.
Beyond their sporting value, the Tokyo Olympics were seen as
a further possibility of improving diplomatic relations between North and South
Korea.
