IOC: North Korean athletes never received sanctions-violating smartphones

The 14 North Korean Olympic athletes in Paris have not received the smartphones that were gifts to all athletes, the games’ authority told Radio Free Asia in a revised statement after it was questioned whether such gifts would be a sanctions violation.

The International Olympic Committee previously told RFA Korean on Wednesday that the phones – manufactured by South Korean maker Samsung – were picked up by the North Korean delegation, but said on Thursday that “We can confirm that the athletes of the NOC of DPRK have not received the Samsung phones.”

The DPRK, or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is the official name of North Korea.

If the phones were to be brought back from Paris into North Korea, they would violate sanctions that prohibit import of industrial machinery, Lee Jaewoong, spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told a news conference.

“In accordance with Paragraph 7 of Resolution 2397, the UN Security Council prohibits the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of all industrial machinery to North Korea,” he said. “Smartphones are prohibited goods under this resolution.” 

The IOC did not respond to an additional RFA inquiry as to whether the phones were simply not distributed to the athletes by the North Korean Olympic Committee or if they were returned.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams also did not clearly answer related questions at the press conference on Thursday, saying that he would have to find out more information about the subject.

Ashley Hess, a former member of the UN Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee panel of experts, pointed out to RFA Thursday that the smartphones could also violate sanctions on luxury goods.

“It could fall under the luxury goods ban (UNSCR 1718) – a list of which is up to Member States to define for their own implementation purposes, but my reading of the EU luxury goods list is that smartphones are explicitly included, so if the Samsung phones are smartphones, as is reported by the media, then they would likely fall under the luxury goods ban, given that the Olympics are in France,” she said.

There has been controversy in the past regarding North Korean athletes receiving Samsung smartphones at the Olympics.

At the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the Olympic organizing committee was concerned about violating sanctions and offered to provide North Korean athletes with Samsung phones under the condition that they return them before returning home. The North Korean delegation refused to receive them.

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.