As North Korea announced its intention to absent from the Tokyo Olympics held in July, the South and North Korean athletes jointly entered the opening ceremony during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and formed a single team. President Moon Jae-in’s plan to reactivate the peace process on the Korean peninsula using the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity for reconciliation between the two Koreas was also disrupted.
North Korea “corona crisis, to protect players”
Cold water in creating a mood of reconciliation between the two Koreas
Ministry of Unification “It is regrettable that it was not possible to advance cooperation”
IOC “North Korea, there was no official notice of absence”
On the 6th, North Korea posted on the homepage of Korea Sports, run by the Ministry of Sports, “The North Korean Olympic Committee (held in Pyongyang on the 25th of last month) will not participate in the Olympics to protect athletes from the global health crisis caused by a virulent virus infection. I decided not to discuss it.”
The reason that the ROK government planned to make the Tokyo Olympics the second Pyeongchang Olympics was because it believed that North Korea would also engage in dialogue if conditions were established. However, after the Pyeongchang Olympics, the internal and external environment facing North Korea has changed rapidly. As the North Korean-US summit in February 2019 ended with a “Hanoi no deal,” disagreements over the North Korean nuclear issue were intact, and North Korea seems to have determined that South Korea is not capable of acting as a mediator in the North Korean-US dialogue. In addition, unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration is reluctant to approach the top-down (top-down) North Korea to meet and see the leaders first.
Shin Beom-cheol, director of the Center for Foreign Affairs and Security at the Economic and Social Research Institute, said, “North Korea’s decision not to attend the Tokyo Olympics is a declarative meaning that they will not go ahead with dialogue or cooperation with Korea or the United States. There is a possibility to further increase it,” he said.
North Korea’s absence from the Tokyo Olympics is expected to act as a variable not only for inter-Korean relations, but also for Korea-Japan relations. The government has been pursuing improvement in Korea-Japan relations since the end of last year, but North Korea’s absence may dilute the government’s willingness to improve relations between Korea and Japan in a situation where there are deep emotional gaps with Japan due to a conflict in the past.
The government has not let go of expectations. Foreign Ministry spokesman Choi Young-sam said at a regular briefing on the 6th, “As the Olympics are a world peace festival, there is time left, and we look forward to North Korea’s participation.” An official from the Ministry of Unification also said, “The government hoped that the Tokyo Olympics would serve as an opportunity to advance peace on the Korean peninsula and reconciliation and cooperation between the two Koreas. I will keep trying to find it.”
A spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on the day that “The IOC has not received any formal application from the North Korean National Olympic Committee (NOC) to waive the obligation to participate in the Tokyo Olympics.” However, a spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said, “We have received confirmation from the North Korean National Paralympic Committee (NPC) that it will not participate in the Tokyo Olympics.”
Reporter Jeong Jin-woo [email protected]
