North Korea Does Not Participate In The Tokyo Olympics, South Korea's Desire To Repeat The Moment Of The PyeongChang Olympics Vanished

Illustration of North Korean gymnast winning gold medal. (Wikimedia Commons / Korea.net / Korea Culture and Information Service / Jeon Han)

JAKARTA - North Korea has decided not to participate in the quadrennial Games Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Tokyo in July.

This decision was taken at the North Korea Olympic Committee meeting which took place in Pyongyang on March 25, as published by kcnawatch.org on Monday, April 5.

The meeting was held virtually and chaired by the North Korean Olympic Chairperson who is also North Korea's Minister of Physics, Culture, and Sports Kim Il-guk.

After discussing the work of the North Korean Olympic Committee and discussing the work targets for this year, the results were also discussed

The Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Second Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Party Committee detailed the tasks and ways to make North Korea an influential country in the sport.

To that end, they aim to increase the number of medals that North Korea won in international matches, as well as increase sports enthusiasm throughout the country according to the five-year plan period passed at the last congress.

In order to achieve this target, it is set to develop professional sports techniques and organize mass sports activities this year.

And, at this meeting, the North Korean Olympic Committee, based on the advice of its members, decided not to participate in the Tokyo Olympics, to protect North Korean athletes from the world public health crisis due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, South Korea as reported by Koreatimes originally hoped to use the Tokyo Olympics as a bridge to establish communication with Pyongyang, as had happened before.

At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, North Korea sent representatives. A total of 22 athletes represented North Korea at that time. The North Korean contingent at that time consisted of 230 members. One of them is Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to the BBC.

A year later, on June 30, 2019, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, United States President Donald Trump, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a historic meeting for the first time in the Demilitarized Zone of the North-South Korea border.