Photo courtesy of Flickr
By Madhavi Rao ’24
Staff Writer
Of the 206 countries planning to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, North Korea is the first to announce that it will not attend the event due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to The Associated Press, the country’s decision, which was released on a government-run website, was made to protect its athletes from COVID-19.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed due to COVID-19, have been scheduled from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021. In a statement to the public, the International Olympic Committee stated that the Olympics are open to the Japanese public but will not allow overseas viewership.
On March 25, North Korea decided not to attend the events. This is the second time the country has missed the Olympics, the first being during the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, as reported by BBC News. While the boycott of the Seoul Olympics in 1988 was motivated by political reasons, this recent decision was made with public health concerns in mind.
The country has reported zero COVID-19 cases, though many are skeptical of the truth in this statement. According to The New York Times, the country’s isolation has made its public health care system vulnerable and unable to handle a pandemic of this scale.
On April 9, the country’s leader Kim Jong Un made a speech to party members addressing the devastation that the pandemic caused in the country. The Guardian reported that Kim compared the current pandemic to the 1990 famine, using the euphemism “arduous march” in both situations. The famine in 1990 was widely attributed to the withdrawal of aid from the Soviet Union and resulted in the deaths of up to 3 million people, according to NPR.
Kim accredited the failing economy to a heavy reliance on imports and a lack of self-reliance in the country’s production, according to The Associated Press. However, the agency went on to state that the country’s crisis is caused by its increased isolation during the pandemic, poor management and economic sanctions to improve its nuclear arsenal.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, North Korea has kept its borders closed and cut off trade with China. In past weeks, the country test-launched two guided missiles in what The New York Times called “a challenge to President Biden.” According to BBC News, the U.S., Japan and South Korea have condemned the tests.
Helen Roane ’23, an international relations major, noted that this decision might have some political intentions. “What makes me think that it is more of a political move than simply COVID [related] is because there are other countries [that] are experiencing COVID hardships that haven’t said that they would be avoiding the Olympics,” Roane said. “North Korea must have been aware of the political repercussions of its decision. I’d like to see how this affects the rest of the countries that are participating.”
Al-Jazeera reported that South Korea’s Unification Ministry hoped that the Tokyo Olympics would be a chance to “foster peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas.” The event would also have been an opportunity for other countries, such as the U.S., to hold talks with the highly isolated state.
International relations major Bria Carlson ’23 noted that, “The issue really comes down to what North Korea’s intentions [are].”
“Are they truly dropping out because of the potential health risks or are they wanting to send a political message?” Carlson questioned. “North Korea has been hit hard during this past year so dropping out to send a political message doesn’t seem all that far off.”