Olympic Committee Bans North Korea From 2022 Winter Games

The International Olympic Committee banned North Korea from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Wednesday after the country refused to send athletes to the 2021 Tokyo games, multiple sources reported.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended North Korea until the end of 2022 after the country failed to send athletes to Tokyo, IOC President Thomas Bach said Wednesday, according to Reuters.

“The National Olympic Committee Of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is suspended until the end of the year 2022 as a result of its unilateral decision not to participate (in Tokyo),” Bach said.

“They were violating the Olympic Charter and did not fulfill their obligation as stated in the Olympic Charter,” Bach added, according to the New York Post.

North Korea will not receive financial support from the IOC withheld due to sanctions, according to a press release, though the IOC may still approve individual North Korean athletes who qualified for the games.

North Korea received “a fair opportunity to be heard” after “very clear warnings” about the “consequences” of its failure to send a team to the 2021 winter games, according to the press release.

North Korea sent 22 athletes to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, according to the Associated Press.