Home > National > North Korea

North Korea sends only three athletes to Asian Winter Games in Harbin

Published: 06 Feb. 2025, 15:48 Updated: 06 Feb. 2025, 15:49

SEO JI-EUN
[email protected]

The North Korean figure skating pairs team of Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik perform during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea on Feb. 14, 2018. [YONHAP]

North Korea sent a drastically reduced delegation to the upcoming Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, with only three athletes competing, the country's state media reported Thursday.

The national team, led by Minister of Physical Culture and Sports and North Korea's Olympic Committee Kim Il-guk, departed from Pyongyang on Wednesday, according to the official Rodong Sinmun. The team flew to Harbin, where Vice Sports Minister Kim Yong-gwon and China’s Ambassador to North Korea Wang Yajun greeted them at the airport.

According to the official website of the event's organizing committee, North Korea registered only three athletes, all competing in figure skating. This includes Ryom Tae-ok, 25, and Han Kum-chol, 25, in the pairs category, and Ro Yong-myong, 24, in men's singles.

Ryom is considered Pyongyang's top figure skater, previously winning a bronze medal at the 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games. At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, she finished 13th in pairs skating, setting both her personal best and North Korea’s highest-ever Olympic figure skating ranking.

North Korea’s participation in Harbin marks a drastic reduction from previous Asian Winter Games, where the country fielded much larger delegations, such as 51 athletes in Aomori, Japan, in 2003, 66 athletes in Changchun, China, in 2007, 32 athletes in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2011 and 7 athletes in Sapporo, Japan, in 2017.

North Korean Sports Minister Kim Il-guk, left, chief of the North Korean delegation to the Feb. 7-14 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeastern China, departs Pyongyang for China at an international airport in the North Korean capital on Feb. 5, 2025, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. [YONHAP]

Pyongyang was initially seen preparing a larger team for the Harbin Games, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A South Korean Unification Ministry official told reporters that North Korea may have reduced the team size to focus on the sports and athletes with higher medal potential.

“North Korea has not always performed better just because it sent a larger team,” a South Korean Unification Ministry official said Thursday. "Years of border closures due to Covid-19 may have weakened the country’s athletic competitiveness due to a lack of international training opportunities, and as a result, North Korea may have opted to send only a small, elite group with higher medal prospects."

Speculation rose over strains in the North Korea-China relationship, reportedly due to Pyongyang’s deepening ties with Russia amid its ongoing war against Ukraine. However, South Korean officials have dismissed these claims as a direct reason for sending a smaller delegation to China.

The Harbin Asian Winter Games mark North Korea’s first participation in an international winter sports event since the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

In 2021, North Korea skipped the Tokyo Summer Olympics due to Covid-19 concerns, which led to the suspension of its Olympic committee until the end of 2022. As a result, the country was also barred from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]