SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea has become the first country to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics for fear of the coronavirus, a decision that highlights the challenges Japan faces as it struggles to organize a global sporting event amidst a violent pandemic.
A website run by the North Korean Ministry of Sports said that its national Olympic Committee during a meeting on March 25 decided not to participate in the Games to protect athletes from the “global public health crisis caused by COVID-19”.
The pandemic has already delayed the Tokyo Games, which were originally scheduled for 2020, and organizers have endeavored to implement preventive measures, such as banning international spectators, to ensure the safety of athletes and residents.
However, there is still concern that the Olympics could worsen the spread of the virus and the increasing number of cases in Japan and the slow release of vaccines have raised public questions about whether the Games should be held.
Japan’s Olympic Committee said on Tuesday that North Korea had not yet notified it that it would not participate in the Tokyo Games.
Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said the government expects many countries to participate in the Olympics and has promised extensive anti-virus measures.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry deplored the North’s decision, saying it hoped the Tokyo Olympics would provide an opportunity to improve inter-Korean relations, which declined amid an impasse in major nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
North Korea sent 22 athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, along with government officials, performance artists, journalists and a female-only crowd.
At the Pyeongchang Games, North Korean and South Korean athletes marched together under a blue map that symbolizes a unified Korean peninsula, while the red-dressed North Korean cheerleaders captivated global attention. The Koreas also placed their first combined Olympic team in women’s ice hockey, which attracted passionate support from the crowds, despite losing all five games 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 his brother’s desire for a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a move that helped the North start negotiations with South Korea and the United States.
Diplomatic efforts have since stalled, and North Korea’s decision to stay out of the Tokyo Olympics is a setback for hopes of reviving it.
Although North Korea has firmly stated that it is free from the coronavirus, outsiders have expressed doubts about whether the country has escaped the pandemic entirely, given its precarious health infrastructure and a porous border it shares with China, its economic lifeline.
Describing its anti-virus efforts as a “matter of national existence”, North Korea severely limited cross-border traffic, banned tourists, expelled diplomats and mobilized health professionals with quarantine tens of thousands of people who had symptoms.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said earlier that he hoped to invite US President Joe Biden to the Olympics and that he was willing to meet Kim Jong Un or his sister if any of them attended the Games. Suga, however, did not say whether he would invite any of them.
Experts say the closure of the pandemic border has further shocked North Korea’s economy, already broken by decades of mismanagement, aggressive military spending and crippling U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.
The economic setbacks have left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with former President Donald Trump, who derailed due to differences in the exchange of sanctions release and nuclear disarmament measures in the North.
In recent political speeches, Kim has vowed to reinforce his nuclear deterrence in the face of US-led pressure, and his government has so far rejected the Biden government’s opening for negotiations, demanding that Washington abandon its “hostile” policies first.
The North ended a year-long pause in ballistic testing activity last month, firing two short-range missiles off the east coast, continuing the tradition of testing new US governments with weapon demonstrations designed to measure Washington’s response and win concessions. .
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AP editors Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to the report.