JAKARTA - The North Korean contingent of athletes who will compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics arrived in the French capital on Sunday led by the Minister of Sports.

The arrival of the contingent marked North Korea's first participation in the Summer Olympics in eight years, in which Pyonyang last sent his athletes at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

About a dozen North Korean athletes have qualified for the Paris Olympics in various sports such as gymnastics, table tennis, boxing, wrestling and judo, reported by Kyodo News July 22.

Previously, the North Korean contingent led by Minister of Physical Culture and Sports Kim Il Guk left Pyongyang by air on July 20, quoted from KCNA.

North Korea has decided not to send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics which will be held in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Pyongyang closed its borders to stem the spread of the coronavirus in early 2020, before returning to the international sport about three years later.

The International Olympic Committee banned North Korea from competing in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, for failing to fulfill its obligation to send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics.

Meanwhile, at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, North Korea and South Korea lined up together under the "Korean Unification" flag amid easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The two countries also deployed a joint female ice hockey team.


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