North Korea pulls out of Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19 infection fears

North Korea’s sports ministry has announced that its team will not be participating in the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo due to rising risks of COVID-19 infections. 

The announcement, dated Monday, was carried by the Sports in the DPR Korea website run by the ministry and reported a meeting of the national Olympic committee on March 25.

The North’s official KCNA news agency had previously reported the committee meeting, without mentioning the Olympic decision.

The North’s Olympic Committee “decided not to participate in the 32nd Olympic Games in order to protect players from the world public health crisis caused by COVID-19”, the North’s sports ministry’s news service said.

Pyongyang’s announcement puts an end to Seoul’s hopes of using the postponed Tokyo Games to trigger a reset in the deadlocked talks process.

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The isolated, nuclear-armed North’s participation in the last Winter Games, in Pyeongchang in South Korea, was a key catalyst in the diplomatic rapprochement of 2018.

Leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong attended as his envoy, in a blaze of publicity, and the South’s President Moon Jae-in seized the opportunity to broker talks between Pyongyang and Washington that led to a series of high-profile meetings between Kim and US President Donald Trump.