Calling The US And Allied Political Boycott Defamation Of Olympic Spirit, North Korea: We Support China

Illustration of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. (Wikimedia Commons/N509FZ)

JAKARTA - North Korea has blamed enemy powers and a worldwide pandemic for not being able to attend the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, accusing the United States and its allies of trying to prevent the Olympics from succeeding, state media said on Friday.

North Korea's Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports sent letters to their Chinese counterparts, including the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, expressing their support for the Beijing Winter Olympics despite their absence, KCNA news agency reported.

North Korea is suspended from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until the end of 2022, meaning it will miss the Beijing Winter Olympics, after failing to send a team to last year's Tokyo Olympics, citing COVID-19 concerns.

"We were unable to take part in the Olympics due to the movement of enemy troops and the worldwide pandemic, but we will fully support our Chinese counterparts in all their work to hold a beautiful and beautiful Olympic festival," the letter said, according to KCNA, quoted by Reuters January 7.

The letter criticized the move by the United States and its allies as "an insult to the spirit of the international Olympic Charter, as well as a basic act of trying to humiliate China's international image."

In December, the White House announced US government officials would boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics, because of China's human rights atrocities, while allowing US athletes to freely travel to Beijing to compete.

Washington's move was followed by several other countries, including Britain, Australia and Canada, which have also announced a diplomatic boycott.

"The United States and its vassal forces are increasingly unveiling in their movement against China, aimed at preventing the successful opening of the Olympics," the North Korean newspaper criticized.

For information, North Korea said preparations for the Olympics were successfully carried out "under the righteous leadership of (Chinese Communist Party President) Secretary General Xi Jinping despite the worldwide health crisis."