South Korean officials have raised concerns about the Samsung smartphones provided to North Korean athletes at the Paris Olympics potentially violating U.N. Security Council sanctions. Samsung, a significant Olympic partner, is offering its latest Galaxy Z Flip 6 smartphones to all athletes at the Paris Games. The International Olympic Committee confirmed the distribution of the phones to the North Korean athletes within the Olympic village, but their whereabouts afterward remain unclear.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry highlighted that smartphones are on the list of items prohibited under Security Council Resolution 2397, established in 2017 to restrict the supply of various goods to North Korea, including industrial machinery. The resolution applies to both the North Korean government and its citizens, and South Korean authorities emphasized that the smartphones would be prohibited from entering the country through any means.
According to Lee Jaewoong, the ministry’s spokesperson, preventing the prohibited items from reaching North Korea is of utmost importance. The South Korean government is actively engaged in diplomatic efforts to ensure compliance with sanctions, although specific details were not disclosed. Similar issues arose during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where North Korean athletes declined Samsung devices offered by the organizing committee under the condition that they return the phones before leaving for home.
North Korea dispatched 16 athletes to the Paris Games to compete in various sports, such as wrestling, swimming, table tennis, and boxing. The country did not partake in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo due to a self-imposed lockdown amid the pandemic. Consequently, the IOC excluded North Korea from the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing as a consequence of their absence from the Tokyo event.
