North Korea Pulls Out of Olympics

Some North Korean youth participants at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Wikimedia Commons

Some North Korean youth participants at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Margaret Young, Staff Writer.

Earlier this month North Korea announced that they would be stepping out of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to concern for the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be the first time since their 1988 Olympics boycott that North Korea will not be participating in the Olympics. 

North Korean representatives in front of the Olympic Village at the 2016 Rio Olympic games. (Wikimedia Commons)

However, the International Olympic Committee has said that they have not received the official documents regarding North Korea leaving the Olympics. This does leave  unanswered questions, but those might be answered in the future. 

What concerns people more are the implications for diplomacy with North Korea this year. The Olympics are the best time to get in contact with the otherwise reserved country. 

As The New York Times puts it in their April 5th article, “North Korea’s decision deprives South Korea and other nations of a rare opportunity to establish official contact with the isolated country.” And many seem to hold this opinion, as the Associated Press says, “The North Korean announcement, three months before the Games begin, could signal the Pyongyang is rejecting a repeated push by Seoul to use the Olympics to create a mood for dialogue.”

North and South Koreans marching under one flag at the 2018 Pyonchang Winter Olympics. (Wikimedia Commons)

There’s no telling what can happen now — the world will just have to wait and see.