Funny diplomatic cable. In a letter to China, North Korea accuses “hostile forces” and the risk of Covid being the reason for its inability to make it to the Winter Olympics which are due to open in Beijing on February 4 next.
In fact, since September, North Korean athletes have been deprived of the Games until the end of 2022, due to the country’s unilateral decision not to send its athletes to the Tokyo Summer Olympics. . North Korea was the only country not to send athletes to Tokyo last summer, and the IOC had warned of the consequences of not attending.
In this letter from the North Korean Olympic Committee, Pyongyang also accuses the United States of working for the failure of the Games, according to state media.
Several diplomatic boycotts
The official KCNA news agency does not say whether the letter mentions a diplomatic delegation likely to visit Beijing anyway, as the country maintains a strict lockdown on its borders, including for its diplomats. In 2018, Kim Jong Un sent his sister Kim Yo Jong to the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
In early December, the United States announced it would boycott official ceremonies surrounding the Games over China’s human rights record, while leaving American athletes free to travel to Beijing to compete. Several other countries, including Britain, Australia and Canada, have also since announced diplomatic boycotts.
“The United States and its vassal forces are more and more disguised in their steps against China”, to “dishonor the international image” of its ally, protests the letter, qualifying these initiatives “of insult to the ‘spirit of the International Olympic Charter’.
And to conclude: “We will fully support the Chinese comrades in all their work to organize a splendid and wonderful Olympic festival”.