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| On the 2nd, a demonstration match of the Chinese curling national team players participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is being held at the Beijing National Swimming Center in China. © AFP=News1 |
As North Korea announced that it would not attend the Tokyo Olympics in Japan, which is scheduled to be held in July this year, interest is drawing on whether to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics in China in February next year.
North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics has also been regarded as a governor, as both sides claim to be traditional allies. There is an observation of’nothing’.
◇ North Korea participates in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the dialogue between North and South America
North Korea first participated in the Winter Olympics at the 9th Olympic Games held in Innsbruck, Austria in 1964, and participated 9 out of 15 competitions, including the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do.
During the Innsbruck tournament, North Korea dispatched 13 athletes in two sports, including speed skating and cross-country skiing, but after that, only 2 to 6 people were sent mainly in skating events. Then, at the PyeongChang tournament, a squad of 22 players (12 female hockey players played as a single team from North and South Korea), which is the largest ever, in five sports including short track, attracted attention from around the world.
In particular, North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics, as the vice president of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party, Kim Yeo-jeong, delivered a letter to President Moon Jae-in, the secretary of his brother Kim Jong-un. ‘
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| President Moon Jae-in (bottom row right) and his wife Kim Jeong-suk (bottom row left) at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics held at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Gangwon-do on February 9, 2018. He is greeting the deputy chief of the center (in the middle of the upper row). 2018.2.9/News1 © News1 Reporter Yoo Seung-gwan |
It is a well-known fact that the Korean government sought high-level dialogue with North Korea, the United States, and Japan during the Tokyo Olympics this summer in order to recreate this’experience of Pyeongchang’. President Moon said in his March 1 commemoration address, “The Tokyo Olympics can be an opportunity for dialogue between Korea-Japan, North Korea, North Korea, and North America.”
However, as North Korea suddenly announced its intention to absent from the Tokyo Olympics, the Korean government has to fully review the plan.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “There is time left (until the Olympics). I look forward to North Korea’s participation” (Spokesman Choi Young-sam), but among experts, the possibility that North Korea will overturn this decision is “not very great.” The prospect comes out. As North Korea announced its decision to absent from the Olympic Games through the homepage of the Ministry of Sports and Sports, which is a department in charge of the Olympic Games, this is because “it means a policy decision, not a political decision.”
◇’Border blockade’ prolonged in North Korea due to the Corona 19 epidemic…北 Vaccine security variable
At the end of January last year, when the corona 19 from China showed signs of spreading around the world, the North Korean authorities reinforced quarantine measures, in principle, blocking the entry of residents and foreigners through the border between North Korea and China, saying that they would prevent the influx. Flights and international trains to and from North Korea, China, and Russia have also been suspended for more than a year.
Therefore, as long as the corona19 epidemic situation does not improve significantly in the future, there is a possibility that North Korea will reach the same conclusion as this Tokyo Olympics for the Beijing Winter Olympics 10 months later.
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| On August 28, last year, on the occasion of North Korea’s’Youth Day’, audiences who came to watch the performance held at the 4·25 Cultural Palace Plaza in Pyongyang are wearing masks. © AFP=News1 |
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In particular, the North Korean Ministry of Health is still arguing that “there is no one resident with Corona 19”, but it is a general evaluation at home and abroad that “it is difficult to trust.”
North Korean news sources said, “The North Korean claim that there are no corona19 confirmed is just an investigation to promote the superiority of the system,” and “instructing North Korean residents that’Corona 19 is a terrifying epidemic’ and is making them wear masks thoroughly.” He said.
The vaccine that North Korea has currently secured through’CoVax Facility’, an international co-purchase project for Corona 19 vaccine, is 1992,000 doses, of which 1.74,000 doses are planned to be delivered by May.
However, considering that the total population of North Korea is estimated to be around 25 million, it is impossible to form collective immunity only with the amount of vaccine supplied through COVAX. In addition, there is a prospect that “there is a possibility that even the schedule in which North Korea receives vaccines through COVAX is likely to be disrupted” as it has recently disrupted the supply and demand for Corona 19 vaccines around the world.
In the meantime, news that the Chinese and Russian governments have proposed to North Korea to provide their own Corona 19 vaccine, but whether or not North Korea has accepted it is yet to be confirmed.
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| US President Joe Biden (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping © News1 Designer Choi Soo-ah |
However, there is a lot of speculation that the North Korean authorities are expanding refrigeration storage facilities and quarantine facilities at the border between North Korea and China and international airports and train stations.
◇ Even if North Korea participates, if the U.S.’boycott’, Korea’s’Again Pyeongchang’ stranded
Even if North Korea participates in the Beijing Winter Olympics, there is another factor that makes it difficult to reproduce the’experience of Pyeongchang’. It is America.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing on the 6th (local time) that his country will “consult with allies and friends” on whether his country will participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics, resulting in an interpretation that the possibility of a’boycott’ was open. A spokesman for Price also discussed the human rights violations of the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
After the remarks of a spokesman for Price were reported, the US State Department put forward a position that “there was not, nor did we discuss a boycott of the Winter Olympics,” but if the US decides to absent from the Beijing Winter Olympics later, it will also affect other allies such as Korea and Japan. There seems to be a high probability of asking’to act together’.
At the time of the Korea-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held on the 3rd, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that “the South Korean side supported China’s Winter Olympics”, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs drew a line saying, “It was a fundamental story,” because it took into account this current in the United States. There is an observation that it is not.