North Korea to Skip Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

North Korea announced, on Friday, that it would not participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic and moves by hostile forces.

The announcement deprives South Korea of a rare opportunity to establish official contact with the ​North. Officials from the South had hoped that the ​Olympics would provide a venue for​ official delegates from both Koreas to meet and discuss issues beyond sports.

In a letter hand-delivered on Wednesday to China by the North’s ambassador, the country’s Olympic Committee and its ministry of sports wished Beijing a successful Games even though “the U.S. and its vassal forces are getting ever more undisguised in their moves against China aimed at preventing the successful opening of the Olympics,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Friday.

In the same manner, the letter added that although North Korea “could not take part in the Olympics due to the hostile forces’ moves and the worldwide pandemic,” it “would fully support the Chinese comrades in all their work to hold a splendid and wonderful Olympic festival.”

North Korea has called the boycotts “an insult to the spirit of the international Olympic Charter and as a base act of attempting to disgrace the international image of China.”