Olympics
The International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that North Korea will be banned from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The decision came after North Korea chose not to participate in this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, according to the IOC.
The IOC executive board’s decision bans a North Korean delegation from entering the Beijing Games, which are set to begin in less than five months. North Korea’s suspension also excludes the nation from receiving financial or programmatic support from the IOC for the next 15-plus months. NBC Sports reports that North Korea was the only one of 206 National Olympic Committees to withdraw from the Tokyo Games. The country decided in March not to send athletes to Tokoyo in order “to protect our athletes from the global health crisis caused by the malicious virus infection.”
Although the IOC hasn’t issued an official statement or even mentioned the topic, North Korea’s government is actively violating the human rights of its citizens, according to the U.S. Department of State. Whether the ongoing human rights crisis in North Korea had an influence on the IOC’s decision to ban North Korea from the Beijing Games is not known at this time. The Beijing Winter Olympics are set to start on February 4, 2022, and run until February 20.
IOC Press Release: IOC Executive Board suspends NOC of Democratic People’s Republic of Koreahttps://t.co/JWdHqW004S
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) September 8, 2021
Wow Jose, brutal but largely true. Astute observation for a web page that is supposed to be about snow. America has been a bully and much more for a long time largely in the name of big business but that’s another discussion. It seems completely reasonable North Korea skipped Tokyo because of the pandemic and they should not be punished for that. North Korea is certainly not saintly and they are plenty to worry about with their nukes and missiles, but how can North Korea ever become part of meaningful member of the nations of the world if the IOC and others take actions like this without explicitly stating why, the IOC has always ben a bit dubious. In my opinion the author is out of line quoting the State Department like that, let’s stick with the facts (and snow!) without needless editorial statements.
The US killed 20% of all Koreans in a war of aggression and must now propagandize against those of them who keep war capitalists out of their affairs and you go out of your way to quote the state department when even the IOC made no mention of any of this nonsense? You’re weird. Do you mention all 58 of the wars and ‘interventions’ and coups perpetrated by the US since 1945 every time you write an article about skiing in the US? Biggest human rights violator in the history of the world