South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yubin, who won bronze and North Korea’s Ri Jung-sik and Kim Kum-yong, who won silver, pose with Samsung Z Flip 6 on the podium during the table tennis mixed doubles medal ceremony at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Arena 4 in South Paris on July 30, 2018 in Paris, France. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – In a break from tradition, athletes at the Paris Olympics have been permitted to take ‘selfies’ on the medal podium, marking a shift in the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) longstanding ban on mobile devices during award ceremonies.
This change comes with a catch: athletes must use the Galaxy Z Flip 6, a smartphone provided by Samsung, an official Olympic sponsor.
While the IOC was expected to distribute these devices to all participating athletes, North Korean competitors have been a notable exception.
On the evening of August 8, the IOC confirmed that “the North Korean delegation has not received Samsung mobile phones,” contradicting an earlier report by Radio Free Asia (RFA) which claimed that North Korea’s National Olympic Committee had accepted the smartphones on behalf of its athletes.
The IOC’s clarification stems from the potential violation of international sanctions against North Korea. Electronic devices are prohibited from entering North Korea due to their potential for military application.
This restriction is based on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2379, adopted in December 2017, which prohibits “the supply, sale or transfer to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of all industrial machinery, transportation vehicles, iron, steel, and other metals, with the exception of spare parts needed to maintain currently operational commercial civilian passenger aircraft.”
It’s important to note that while North Korean athletes receiving the smartphones wouldn’t directly violate sanctions, bringing these devices into North Korea would. The athletes would be permitted to use the phones in France or other countries outside of North Korea.
This isn’t the first time North Korea has declined Olympic-sponsored smartphones. During the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the organizing committee offered to provide smartphones to North Korean athletes on the condition they be returned before departing South Korea. However, North Korea refused to accept the devices altogether.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
