North Korea's Olympic team has so far won five medals at the Paris Olympics, but will return home empty-handed when it comes to new smartphones.
The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that North Korean athletes will be the only athletes in Paris who will not receive the complimentary Samsung smartphones that all other teams received.
Samsung, a sponsor of the South Korea-based Olympics, announced that it will give 10,500 new phones as a courtesy to this year's Olympic athletes. The company offered the Galaxy Z Flip6, which includes a foldable display, which is not present in any available iPhone product.
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North Korean Olympic athletes will not receive complimentary smartphones from Samsung. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images/File)
But South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that providing Samsung smartphones to North Korean Olympic athletes could defy U.N. sanctions related to Pyongyang's weapons program.
“The UN Security Council, in accordance with paragraph 7 of Resolution 2397 (2017), prohibits the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer of all industrial machinery to North Korea, and smartphones are prohibited items subject to the resolution,” South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Our government continues to make diplomatic efforts in cooperation with the international community to ensure the thorough implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions.”
North Korea has been under UN sanctions over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs since 2006, and the sanctions have become more restrictive over the years.
North Korean athletes are pictured during the team's boat ride on the River Seine as part of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on July 26, 2024. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's military has recently boasted of advances in its weaponry. The North's Korean Central News Agency said in early July that the military had tested the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 missile, which can carry a 4.5-ton warhead.
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Just days later, the South Korean military announced it was preparing “Star Wars” laser defense systems as a countermeasure to North Korea's weapons advance.
“Our country is becoming the first country in the world to deploy and operate laser weapons, and our armed forces' response capabilities to North Korea's drone provocation will be further strengthened,” the country's Defense Acquisition Program Administration wrote in a statement.
North Korea's Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mi Rae compete in the women's synchronized 10m platform final. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Tensions between the two nations have led to similar incidents involving Samsung in the past.
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At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, North Koreans refused to accept Samsung devices offered to them by the organizing committee on the condition that they return them before returning home, according to South Korean officials.
North Korea has 14 athletes competing in the Paris Olympics. The country won silver in mixed doubles table tennis, behind Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong. It also won a silver in women's 10-meter synchronized platform diving, behind Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mi Rae.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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