SEOUL, South Korea (PA) – North Korea becomes the first country to give up the Tokyo Olympics because of fears of coronavirus, a decision that highlights the challenges facing Japan as it struggles to host a sporting event globally amid a raging pandemic.
A website run by the North Korean Ministry of Sports said that its National Olympic Committee during a March 25 meeting decided not to participate in the Games to protect athletes from the “global public health crisis caused by COVID-19.”
The pandemic has already rejected the Tokyo Games, which were originally scheduled for 2020, and organizers have rushed to implement preventive measures, such as banning international spectators, to ensure the safety of athletes and residents.
However, there are still concerns that the Olympics could worsen the spread of the virus, and the growing 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 informed it that it would not participate in the Tokyo Games.
Katsunobu Kato, the chief secretary of the Japanese cabinet, said the government hoped many countries would join the Olympics and promised comprehensive anti-virus measures.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry has expressed regret over the North’s decision, saying it hopes the Tokyo Olympics will provide an opportunity to improve inter-Korean relations, which have declined amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations. 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 230-member women’s applause group.
At the Pyeongchang Games, North Korean and South Korean athletes marched under a blue map symbolizing a unified Korean peninsula, while North Korea’s red-clad cheerleaders captured global attention. Korea also won the first combined women’s Olympic ice hockey team, which attracted passionate support from the crowds, despite losing all five games with a combined 28-2 score.
Those games were also very much about politics. The North Korean contingent included the strong sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who conveyed her brother’s wish for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a move that helped the North initiate talks with Korea. South and the United States.
Diplomatic efforts have been deadlocked since then, and North Korea’s decision to participate in the Tokyo Olympics is an obstacle in hopes of reviving it.
While North Korea has firmly stated that it does not have a coronavirus, outsiders have expressed doubts about whether the country has completely escaped the pandemic, given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border that it has shares with China its economic lifeline.
Describing its anti-virus efforts as a “matter of national existence,” North Korea severely restricted cross-border trafficking, banned tourists, eliminated diplomats and mobilized quarantined health workers, tens of thousands of people with symptoms.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has previously said he expects to invite US President Joe Biden to the Olympics and is willing to meet with Kim Jong Un or his sister if anyone attends the Games. Suga, however, did not say whether he would invite any of them.
Experts say the pandemic closure of borders has continued to shock North Korea’s economy, which has already been torn apart by decades of mismanagement, aggressive military spending and strict US-led sanctions on its nuclear weapons program.
Economic setbacks have left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with former President Donald Trump, who has derailed disagreements over the release of sanctions and nuclear disarmament measures in the north.
Kim, in recent political speeches, has pledged to strengthen his nuclear deterrent in the face of US-led pressure, and his government has so far rejected the Biden administration’s opening of talks, urging Washington to give up its “hostile” policies first.
The North ended a one-year break in ballistic testing last month, launching two short-range missiles off its east coast last month, continuing a tradition of testing new U.S. administrations with weapons demonstrations designed to measure response Washington and conquer the concessions.
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AP writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to the report.