OREANDA-NEWS. The DPRK has refused to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. This was reported on the website of the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"We will not be able to participate in the Games due to the actions of hostile forces and the pandemic, but we will fully support our Chinese comrades in their work in preparing a grand and beautiful Olympic celebration,"- said the letter North Korea sent to the Beijing Olympics organizing committee.

It also said the "anti-Chinese conspiracy schemes by the US and its supporters to prevent the successful holding of the Olympics are becoming increasingly vicious."

The DPRK also did not take part in the summer Olympics in Tokyo because of the pandemic.

North Korea debuted at the Winter Games in 1964 before missing the Olympics in 1968, 1976, 1980, 1994, 2002 and 2014.

The Olympics will be held in Beijing from 4 to 20 February 2022.

The White House said on 6 December that US President Joseph Biden's administration would not be sending diplomatic or official representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki attributed this to "continuing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang (the West accuses Beijing of mass repression of Uighur Muslims living there) and other human rights abuses.

Australia and Canada later joined the diplomatic boycott. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking in the House of Commons of the British Parliament on December 8, also said that members of the government would not travel to the Chinese capital, meaning there would "in fact be a diplomatic boycott." China's foreign ministry later said that countries that announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games would "inevitably pay for their actions".