IOC suspends North Korea Olympic Committee for Tokyo Games no-show
- The suspension will last until the end of 2022 and covers the coming Beijing Winter Olympics
- IOC chief Thomas Bach says that if a North Korean athlete qualifies for Beijing, the committee would take ‘an appropriate decision in due course’
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North Korea suspended from Beijing Winter Olympics after Tokyo Games no-show
As a result, it 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”.
The 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”.
Why did North Korea reject 3 million Sinovac vaccine doses?
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.
