North Korea Banned From 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

North Korea’s failure to send athletes to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has resulted in them being banned from participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

The International Olympic Committee formally suspended the country as punishment after they banned athletes from travelling due to concerns about Covid-19.

Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, announced the decision at a press conference.

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He said: “The National Olympic Committee of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is suspended until the end of the year 2022 as a result of its unilateral decision not to participate in Tokyo.

 “They were violating the Olympic Charter and did not fulfil their obligation as stated in the Olympic charter to participate.” 

The committee released a statement saying they had warned North Korea of the consequences of a no-show and had offered athletes vaccines.  

They said: “Throughout the process, the PRK NOC was given a fair opportunity to be heard, and received very clear warnings about the consequences of its position and the fact that any violation of the Olympic Charter would ultimately expose the PRK NOC to the measures and sanctions provided in the Olympic Charter.”

The Guardian reports that the IOC also confirmed that North Korea’s Olympic body will no longer receive the money it was due from previous Olympic games.

The committee claimed if any North Korean athlete qualifies for the games, a separate decision will be made about their participation. 

According to AP News, North Korea announced in April that it would not be sending athletes or delegates to Tokyo 2020, citing the ‘world public health crisis caused by Covid-19’. 

Mr Bach reportedly said the games ‘show to the world how it could look like if everybody would respect the same rules if everybody would live together peacefully without any kind of discrimination’. 

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