N. Korean athletes arrive in Japan for Winter Games
North Korean athletes and officials, led by the country's IOC member Chang Ung, arrived at New Chitosse Airport in Sapporo, the host city for 2017 Asian Winter Games from Feb. 19 to 26. / Yonhap
By Ko Dong-hwan
A few days after the North Korean leader’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam was assassinated in Malaysia, athletes and officials from the provocative military country arrived in Sapporo on Friday to participate in the Asian Winter Games.
The delegation was led by Chang Ung, the only North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), when it landed at New Chitose Airport in the Japanese host city for the event from Feb. 19 to 26.
About 80 members of Chongryon, a Tokyo-based organization comprising pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan, greeted the North Korean guests, according to reports.
“I have done this all my life, and so I do not really have special feelings,” Chang said, according to Yonhap News Agency. “There is quite a bit of snow here.”
But when reporters asked about Kim Jong-nam’s assassination, members of Chongryon stopped the interview. Chang told reporters he was “here as an IOC member” and “can talk about sports all day, but I am not in a position to discuss other matters.”
North Korean athletes ― five short-track speed skaters and two figure skaters ―reportedly said nothing to inquisitive media at the airport.
Kim Jong-nam, who has been living outside North Korea since Jong-un took over in 2011 after the death of his father Jong-il, was attacked by two Asian women with a poisonous spray at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and died en route to Putrajaya Hospital.
His family members, wife Hye-kyong and son Han-sol and daughter Sol-hui, are believed to be in Macau, where Kim was heading.
Japan has retaliated against North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests by imposing a travel ban on its nationals, but has made exception for athletes competing at the games.
The last North Korean athletes to visit Japan were members of the women’s football team, which visited Osaka for an Olympic qualifying round last year.