North Korea Olympic Committee suspended over Games boycott

The IOC has suspended North Korea until the end of 2022; Olympic chief Thomas Bach announced .The action was taken after North Korea boycotted the Tokyo 2020 Games which ended about a month ago.

The suspension covers the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

“The NOC of the People’s Republic of Korea was the only NOC of 200 member body that did not participate in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The IOC executive board decided to suspend the NOC until the end of 2022, as a result of this unilateral decision,” Bach told a press conference.

As a result they violated one of the Olympic Charter’s main tenets that “each NOC is obliged to participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes”.

Their refusal came after rejecting all of the IOC’s proposals over coronavirus safety protocols “until the very last minute including the provision of vaccines” an IOC statement pointed out.

It said the North Koreans had received clear warnings about the consequences of carrying out their first boycott of a Summer Games since Seoul in 1988.

Bach said if a North Korean athlete qualifies for Beijing the IOC would take “an appropriate decision in due course”.

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With the suspension comes the permanent blocking of IOC support which had been withheld due to international sanctions.

And the impoverished isolated state which competed in the last Winter Games held across the Korean border in Pyeongchang in 2018 will miss out on any assistance from the IOC during the suspension.