North Korea says it's skipping the Tokyo Olympics just hours after Japan announced it would be extending sanctions against it
- North Korea on Tuesday said it would skip this year's Olympics, citing COVID-19 concerns.
- Japan, the host country, had just extended unilateral sanctions against North Korea by two years.
- The news dampens optimism that the games could have led to talks between the two Koreas and the US.
North Korea says it will skip the Tokyo Olympics to protect its athletes from COVID-19, an announcement that coincided with Japan's extension of its unilateral sanctions against North Korea.
The North Korean sports ministry said in a statement to The Washington Post: "The National Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea discussed and decided not to participate in the 32nd Olympic Games to protect athletes from the global health crisis by the vicious virus pandemic."
Nikkei Asia reported that this withdrawal marked North Korea's first time skipping the Olympics since 1988 - when the North withdrew because the games were being held in South Korea.
North Korea's state-run media is said to have reported that the withdrawal decision was reached March 25, though the announcement came just as Japan said it would extend unilateral sanctions against North Korea for two more years.
Those sanctions are not new. Tokyo imposed limited sanctions against North Korea in 2006, banning bilateral trade and flights between North Korea and Japan and preventing North Korean-registered ships from entering Japanese waters or docking at Japan's ports.
Broader sanctions - which came into force in 2009 - prohibited exports to North Korea.
According to reports from The Japan Times, Japan spent the past several months considering extending its unilateral sanctions.
The sanctions were due to expire April 13, but Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Katsunobu Kato, hinted last week that Japan was looking to extend the sanctions in response to North Korea's March 25 ballistic-missile tests.
According to a report by The Japan Times, a source within the Japanese government said the extension was viewed as a way to put pressure on Pyongyang, with the aim of not only denuclearizing but holding North Korea accountable for the abduction of some 17 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.
The extension of Japan's sanctions was formalized Tuesday.
"Since Prime Minister Koizumi's last visit to North Korea in 2004, bad relations between the two countries have persisted," Atsuhito Isozaki, an associate professor at Keio University, told the Japanese media outlet NK News. "It's been Tokyo's position that it will extend sanctions as long as there's no change in Pyongyang's attitude."
North Korea's withdrawal from the Tokyo Games may have dashed South Korean President Moon Jae-in's hopes that the Olympics would help forge a path forward for fresh talks between the two Koreas and broader multilateral talks with Japan and the US.