No qualification for Milan-Cortina, Kim Jong-un organizes his own Olympics: only North Korean athletes participate

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No qualification for Milan-Cortina, Kim Jong-un organizes his own Olympics: only North Korean athletes participate

North Korea opened its national Winter Games on February 4 in Samjiyon, a mountainous area near the border with China. The country’s official news agency, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), reported that the games include more than 50 competitions in five winter sports, including ice hockey, figure skating, and skiing, and pit sports clubs from state-owned entities and large industrial sites against each other.

The choice of the Samjiyon site serves the leader’s plans Kim Jong-un for the development of prestigious projects near Mount Paektu, a politically significant area promoted as a tourist destination, where Kim participated in the opening of new luxury hotels last year. North Korean athletes are not participating in the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, having failed to qualify.

North Korea’s last participation in the Winter Olympics was in Pyeongchang in 2018, when 22 athletes competed in five sports. At that time, athletes from both Koreas formed a mixed women’s ice hockey team in a rare instance of inter-Korean sports diplomacy. North Korea’s participation in international sporting events has been severely limited during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country had been suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until the end of 2022 for failing to participate in the Tokyo Games. Historically, North Korea’s best performances at the Winter Olympics have been in ice sports, with a silver medal in women’s speed skating at Innsbruck 1964 and a bronze in short track skating at Albertville 1992.