North Korea will not participate in the Tokyo Olympics due to the risks generated by the coronavirus, the North Korean sports minister announced on Tuesday. The Olympic committee of that country decided, in a meeting, “not to participate in the 32nd Olympic Games to protect athletes from the global health crisis generated by covid-19,” as confirmed by the authorities.

The announcement, dated Monday, was made by the website Sports in the DPR of Korea administered by the ministry and reported on a meeting of the national Olympic committee on March 25. The official news agency of the Asian country, KCNA, he had previously reported on the committee meeting, without mentioning the Olympic decision.

North Korea It is the first country that decides to get off the mega event. The other great absentee will be Russia, a nation that has been prevented from participating due to the doping scandal in which it was involved, although several of its athletes may be present when competing under the Olympic flag.

For the first time in Olympic history there will be no spectators from abroad during the Games, which were rescheduled in this year 2021 after being postponed 12 months by the pandemic. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) It also decided in March to proceed with a “considerable reduction” of its guest program for the contest to be held between July 23 and August 8, in order to be able to follow the requests of the Japanese organizers.

(Reuters)

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