Tokyo, April 7, 2021—Olympic games historially have been used as a powerful tool for delivering messages about causes and pleas but never as strongly as now, three months before the Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled to start from late July in the midst of the global surge of Covid-19 virus viriants.
This week, North Korea weaponized its position regarding its participation in the Tokyo Olympic Games as a retaliation against Japan’s sanctions on Pyongyang. Japanese and South Korean news wires April 6 quoted the North Korean Athletic Ministry as announcing that Pyongyang won’t participate in the Tokyo games to protect its athletes from Covid-19 infections.
Narrowly focused, it’s a message that Japan’s Covid-19 policy is insufficient – only 0.6 percent of the Japanese population of 126 million have been inoculated – and that, while it is insisting zero infections in the country, Pyongyang is telling China and the United States to send vaccines that it badly needs to preempt mass infections.
Pyongyang’s announncement also is directed at the world’s emerging countries to jon its boycott to force Japan to abandon holding the games, the move, which would contribiute to its global recogonition if succssful.
Probably incensed by North Korea, the United States, increasingly angry about China’s attitudes internationally, April 6 suggested that it could boycott the Beijing Winter Olympic Games: State Department spokesperson Ned Price was quoted by U.S. media as saying, ‘A coordinated approach will not only be in our interest but also in the interest of our allies and partners. The message was aimed at China’s human rights abuse of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Meanwhile in Japan, the prime minister, Yoshi Suga, is instructing the Japan Olympic Committee and the Sports minister, Seiko Hashimoto, to continue holding the Tokyo Olympic torch relay no matter how badly the Covid-19 pandemic spreads in cities where the torch is scheduled to pass. It’s hardly a surprise that Suga is railroading the relay with threats and intimidation to governors and mayors alongthe relay route since his political life hangs on a successful Tokyo game. More than 80 percent of Japanese are opposed to the games.
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