North Korea Blames U.S. for Decision to Skip Beijing Olympics

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea said it won't be taking part in the Beijing Olympics and blamed U.S. hostility for its decision, in a symbolic gesture that came months after it was officially barred from participating in upcoming Winter games. 

In a dispatch from its official media Friday, top sports officials said the move was due to the pandemic and what it saw as U.S. attempts to spoil the games hosted by Pyongyang's biggest backer, China. It did not mention the International Olympic Committee's decision to ban North Korea from participating after the country pulled out of the Tokyo Summer Olympics over Covid fears.

“The U.S. and its vassal forces are getting evermore undisguised in their moves against China aimed at preventing the successful opening of the Olympics,” the Korean Central News Agency quoted a letter as saying from its Olympic committee and sports ministry that was sent to China's games committee.

The comments appear directed at a U.S.-led campaign for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing games in protest against China's alleged human rights abuses. The U.S. and allies taking part in the diplomatic boycott -- such as Australia, Canada and the U.K. -- will send athletes to the Winter Olympics that start Feb. 4. 

“We could not take part in the Olympics due to the hostile forces' moves and the worldwide pandemic, but we would fully support the Chinese comrades in all their work to hold splendid and wonderful Olympic festival,” the North Korean letter said, according to KCNA.

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee in September suspended North Korea's participation in events until the end of 2022 after it was the only country with a national Olympic committee that did not take part in the Tokyo games last year. 

The IOC did allow any North Korean athlete who qualified to be considered on a case-by-case basis but since the nation sealed itself off during the pandemic, it was virtually impossible for anyone to compete overseas and qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

North Korea has few athletes who compete at a world-class level in Winter Olympic sports. It did not participate in six of the Winter Olympics since 1964, including the one hosted by ally Russia in Sochi in 2014.

North Korea, which won seven medals at the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016, has been keenly aware of the politics of its participation in the international sports spectacle. It joined the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 games in Los Angeles and skipped the 1988 Summer Olympics in rival South Korea.

North Korea sent Kim Yo Jong, the leader's sister, to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 as part of a detente. The move eventually led to a series of high-level meetings for Kim Jong Un that culminated with a summit with Donald Trump several months later in Singapore -- the first meeting between a North Korean leader and sitting U.S. president.

The government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in was pinning hopes on the Beijing Olympics to help restart sputtering nuclear arms talks with the Biden administration.

Kim Jong Un has urged North Korea to focus on easing food shortages and containing Covid, in a downbeat New Year's policy assessment that suggested nuclear talks with the U.S. were a low priority for the coming months. North Korea has said it has had no Covid-19 infections, but the claim is doubted by the U.S. and others.

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