North Korea will not attend this year’s Tokyo Olympics due to a coronovirus epidemic, Pyongyang’s sports ministry said, playing the final whistle on Seoul’s hopes of using the Tokyo Games to resume talks with its nuclear-armed neighbor is. Separate North’s participation in the previous Winter Games in South hosted in PyeongChang, was a major catalyst in the 2018 diplomatic synergy. Leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong participated as his envoy in the propaganda blast, and South President Moon Jae-in seized the opportunity for broker talks between Pyongyang and Washington, which led Kim and the former High-profile meeting took place between US President Donald Trump.
But Pyongyang’s announcement ends Seoul’s hopes of a postponement due to begin in July to kick off a reset in the negotiation process that begins in July.
North Korea’s Olympic Committee “decided not to participate in the 32nd Olympic Games to save players from the world public health crisis caused by Kovid-19”, the Sports Ministry said in the DPR Korea website operated by the Ministry of Sports in Pyongyang .
But analysts said other factors may be at play.
Announcement – Dated Monday – March 25 reported the meeting of the National Olympic Committee.
North’s official KCNA news agency made a dispatch on the committee meeting without first mentioning the Olympic decision.
Pyongyang is more isolated than ever after closing a strict border and attempting to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighboring China and swept the world.
The North insists that it has no coronavirus cases, although experts have suspected it, but the lockdown has exacerbated the economic pain from several international restrictions on its banned arms programs.
Joe Biden’s new US administration is in the final stages of a review of North Korea policy, with officials widely expected to support the resumption of lower-level talks rather than high-stakes, high-drama summits.
On the campaign trail, Biden portrayed Kim as a “thug” and sharply criticized Trump’s meetings, stating that he had legitimized one of the world’s most ruthless leaders, but also said that he was diplomacy Are open to
Biden warned North Korea of the consequences of violating UN Security Council resolutions after being tested by Pyongyang over what US officials judge to be a ballistic missile.
‘Shameless extortion’
Inter-Korean relations are also at a standstill, with the North repeatedly saying it is not interested in talking to Seoul, and blew up a liaison office along the border last year.
Even in his Independence Day speech on March 1, Moon said: “This year’s Tokyo Olympics could be an opportunity for dialogue between South Korea and Japan, North and South, North Korea and Japan, and North Korea and the United States . “
The day commemorates the mass protests in 1919 in the Korean Peninsula against Tokyo’s colonial rule.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it was “regrettable that Kovid’s position” prevented the Games from serving as “an opportunity to advance peace on the Korean peninsula”.
Japan’s chief government spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, said it was monitoring the report and officials were trying to improve the environment, including “transition countermeasures so that many countries and regions can participate in the Tokyo Games”.
Analysts said the virus may not have been the sole reason behind Pyongyang’s decision.
“Pyongyang seems to be opposing Japan’s policies on North Korea, as sensitive issues such as human rights and sanctions have been raised with Tokyo, US,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. , Told AFP.
Promoted
The North regularly cheers Olympic host nation Japan over its brutal 20th-century proclamation, KCNA reported Sunday as a “persistent and shameless distortion of history” condemning a new Japanese history textbook .
Tokyo regularly seeks a solution to the issue of Japanese civilians being hijacked by the North, although Pyongyang says it has returned all those still living.
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