North Korea says that it will not take part in the Tokyo Olympics this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
North sports ministry’s one of the websites announced that the decision was made through a meeting by the National Olympic Committee on March 25. The members of the committee prioritized preventing athletes from the “world public health crisis caused by COVID-19.”
On Tuesday, The Unification Ministry of South Korea displayed their concern over the North’s decision. It said that it hoped that Tokyo Olympics would give an opportunity to strengthen inter-Korean relations that weakened during nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
Tamayo Marukawa- The Japanese Olympic Minister informed reporters that she was still confirming details and could not instantly comment on the matter. Japan’s Olympic Committee informed that North Korea has not yet reported that it would not take part in the Tokyo Games.
North Korea has claimed itself to be coronavirus-free, outsiders question whether the country has become free from the pandemic entirely, given its weak health infrastructure and a permeable border it shares with China, its economic lifeline.
Expressing its anti-virus efforts as a “matter of national existence,” North Korea has critically restricted cross-border traffic, banned tourists, jetted out diplomats, and mobilized health workers to quarantine tens of thousands of people who had displayed symptoms.
Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga earlier stated that he expected to welcome President Joe Biden to the Olympics and was willing to meet with Kim Jong Un or his powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong if both attended the Games. Suga, however, did not say if he will invite either of them.
According to Experts, pandemic border restrictions have further shocked North Korea’s economy.
The economic crisis has left Kim Jong Un with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with former President Donald Trump. which deflected over differences in exchanging the release of sanctions and the North’s nuclear disarmament moves.
Kim in current political speeches has pledged to sustain his nuclear deterrent in face of U.S.-led pressure. His government has so far declined the Biden administration’s overture for talks, demanding that Washington abandon its “hostile” policies initially.
The North ended a yearlong halt in ballistic testing activity the previous month by firing two short-range missiles off its eastern coast. Maintaining a tradition of testing new U.S. administrations with weapons demonstrations directed at measuring Washington’s reply and wresting concessions.