North Korea at the Olympics

Want to know more about the North Korean Olympic team? A history of North Korea at the Olympics? And what sports do North Korea do well in at the Olympics?

North Korea is often referred to as one of the most closed-off countries, and one we know little about. 

This makes seeing the North Korean athletes perform all the more 'mysterious'. 

believe it or not, North Korean athletes are pretty much just like any other athlete. They train incredibly hard all year round and are proud to compete for their country. 

Plus, the North Korean Olympic team has won multiple medals in the past, too! 

North Korea's Olympic journey hasn't been without its trials, though. 

We take a look at North Korea's Olympic history, starting from North Korea's first time at the Olympics, to its first medal, first gold medal, and most successful Olympic games to date. 

And everything the DPRK Olympic team encountered in between! 

North Korea Olympics Historical Overview
North Korea, the IOC, and the Olympiads (1957-1972)
North Korea at the Olympics (1972+)
North Korea Olympic Medals 
North Korea Olympic Sports 
North Korea & Olympic Politics
North Korea & South Korea Competing Together
North Korea and the Olympics Today (2024)

Header Image: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

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North Korea Olympics Historical Overview

Until the Games of the V Olympiad in 1912 in Stockholm when the Japanese Empire sent a team of two, no independent Asian nation competed in the Olympic Games.

By Japan’s appearance at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Korea was under Japanese rule and the first ethnic Korean sportsmen competed under the flag of Japan in Los Angeles in 1932.

Son Gi-jeong became the first Korean Olympic gold medalist by breaking the World Record in the marathon in Berlin in 1936. He is a native of Sinuiju - today located in North Korea on the Sino-Korean border. 

Source: National Museum of Korean Contemporary History [from the archive of the author]

Olympics & the Division of Korea

Korea became a quasi-independent nation on 15 August 1945. However, it was divided into a Soviet-occupied Northern and a US-occupied Southern part along the 38th Parallel.

In 1948, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) was established on 15 August in Seoul and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) on 9 September in Pyongyang.

Although the 1948 Olympic Games were concluded just one day before the establishment of South Korea, only Southerners participated at the London Olympics.

Source: Korean Heritage Service [english.khs.go.kr]

Korea at the Olympics

The team competed under the taegukgi which became the national flag of South Korea. The name was 'Korean Olympic Team'.

Interestingly, in Korean, it was called 조선올림픽대표단 (lit. Joseon Olympic Delegation) using the Korean term for Korea (Joseon) that later became the official Korean name of the DPRK.

The Korean Olympic Committee was founded in Seoul in June 1947 under the name Chosun Olympic Committee and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1947.

On 3 September 1948, Chosun was replaced by Korean (NB: the IOC recognized as a representative of the whole Korean Peninsula).

Athletics in North Korea

North Korea has its own home-grown championship.

'The Republic Championship of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea' is a national comprehensive sports event held every September to October.

The event was initially set up in October 1972 and called the 'Individual Sports Championships of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea'. There is no age limit for the Republic Championship, and any athlete with a record that meets the required entry criteria for each event can participate.

Various activities are shown via the stylised graphics below.

You can decipher these yourself, but there are a couple of tricky ones which we think represent hoop drill (rhythmic gymnastics) and boxing...

More on North Korea Sports in Art

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North Korea, the IOC, and the Olympiads (1957-1972)

The Northern counterpart of the Korean Olympic Committee, the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was founded in 1953. It applied for recognition in 1956.

It was pro tem accepted by the IOC in 1957 under the condition that North Korea and South Korea would compete as a unified team just as West and East Germany did between 1956 and 1964.

The DPRK agreed to this. However, the ROK did not. As a result, North Korea was not able to compete at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

The IOC granted full recognition in 1962.

The DPRK first appeared at the Winter Olympics in 1964 in Innsbruck, Austria.

The first North Korean athlete Han Pil Hwa won an Olympic medal coming in second in women’s speed skating.

Source: Wikimedia Common

The First North Korean Olympic Athletes?

Although North Korea was supposed to debut at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964, it did not happen till the XX Olympiad in Munich in 1972.

In 1962, Indonesia was suspended from the IOC after it refused entry of Israeli and Taiwanese athletes to the 1962 Asia Games.

In response, Indonesia organized the Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) in 1963 which resulted in banning athletes in shooting, swimming, and athletics who participated at the GANEFO from participating in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

In protest, the DPRK withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics although her Olympics Team was already in the Japanese capital. (NB: Japan also participated in the GANEFO).

The story repeated itself in 1968 after North Korea participated in the 2nd GANEFO in 1966.

Another issue was the names of the national teams to be used at the Olympics in Mexico City.

Although from, 1 November 1968, the North Korean team would have been referred to as DPR Korea, in Mexico City, 'North Korea', 'East Germany', and 'Taiwan' were to compete under these names instead of their official name. Respectively, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the German Democratic Republic, and the Republic of China.

This was unacceptable for the DPRK, who do not accept the name 'North Korea'.

Read more about North Korea vs. the DPRK here. 

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North Korea at the Olympics (1972-2024)

North Korea finally made its debut at the Summer Olympics in Munich in 1972 with 37 athletes. 4 individuals won a medal, plus the women’s volleyball team.

North Korea’s first Olympic gold medal (well, remember Son Gi-jeong of Sinuiju, though) was earned by Ri Ho Jun in sports shooting at the 50-metre rifle-prone event.

Source: Wikipedia

North Korea Summer Olympics

Since 1972, North Korea has participated in all but three Summer Olympics.

North Korea boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. This was similar to all countries with close ties to the USSR, apart from Ceaușescu’s Romania which was probably the closest ideological ally of North Korea at this time.

After failed negotiations to become a co-host, North Korea also boycotted the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This along with Cuba - Ceaușescu wasn’t such a good friend after all.

In 2021, the DPRK decided not to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s stringent border closure.

North Korea Winter Olympics

Since 1964, the DPRK did not appear at seven Winter Olympics (1968, 1976, 1980, 1994, 2002, 2014, 2022).

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the country was suspended from the IOC as a punitive measure for opting out of the Tokyo Olympics.

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North Korea Olympic Medals 

Son Gi-jeong was the first Korean gold medalist in 1936. Pre-dating separation, despite the fact that he is from North Korea, at the time, this was just 'Korea'.

The first medal winner competing for 'North Korea' was Han Pil Hwa. She won a silver Olympic medal coming in second in women’s speed skating.

North Korea’s first official Olympic gold medal was earned by Ri Ho Jun in sports shooting at the 50-metre rifle-prone event.

North Korea Olympic Medals

Since North Korea participated in the first Summer Olympics, it has won 59 medals. It has won medals in 8 different sports (below). 

North Korea has also won 2 medals at the Winter Olympics.

North Korea's most successful Olympics participation was in Barcelona in 1992. Here, it won 9 medals (4 golds and 5 bronzes) and came in 16th on the medals table.

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North Korean Olympic Sports

North Korea at the Olympics are most successful with the following Olympic sports;

They have also won medals in the following sports;

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North Korea & Olympic Politics

North Korea & South Korea Co-Hosting Olympics (1988)

In 1985 the DPRK suggested co-hosting the 1988 Olympics under the name Korea Pyongyang Seoul Olympic Games. This suggestion was backed by Cuban leader Fidel Castro. 

It proposed to hold 11 events of the 23 sports.

Several rounds of negotiations were held in Lausanne among the representatives of the DPRK, the ROK, and the IOC between 1986 and 1988.

Pyongyang’s bid to co-host the 1988 Olympics had an ill fate from the beginning. It lacked both the support of the USSR and China.

Neither of them wanted to risk their bids for future events by boycotting the Olympic Games in Seoul. Also, Moscow – now under the rule of Gorbachev – had a bigger agenda for peace and reconciliation. Further, Beijing recognized the economic potential of South Korea and its benefits for China.

Several offers were made over the two years of negotiations.

Offers ranged from handball and volleyball preliminaries to 8 complete events including football.

At one point, Kim Il Sung suggested hosting 1/3 of the events - representing the 1/3 of Korea’s population that lives in the North. However, these negotiations failed.

After this, the DPRK also didn’t shy away from drastic measures to destabilize the event in Seoul. North Korean agents exploded Korean Air flight KE858 in mid-air over the Andaman Sea in November 1987. 

Sunshine Politics and the Olympics (2000-2004)

After Kim Dae-jung became the president of South Korea, there was a thaw in inter-Korean relations. The two Koreas stepped on the road of reconciliation for a short decade.

In mid-June 2000 President Kim Dae-jung visited Pyongyang and the 1st Inter-Korean Summit took place.

Korea Olympic Unification Flag

As a result of the detente, on 15 September 2000, for the first time, the North and South Korean teams marched under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.

As the Korean teams entered the stadium under the Unification Flag and to the melody of the unofficial anthem of all Koreans, Arirang, the athletes were introduced as “the delegations of the Korean Olympic Committee and the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea marching together as Korea”.

This significant and symbolic entry was received with a standing ovation.

Source: Korean Olympic Committee

The joint entry under the Unification Flag was repeated in Athens in 2004, albeit with less enthusiasm from the announcers and audience alike.

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North Korea & South Korea Competing Together

‘A New Hope’: The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (2018)

Unlike in 2000, the thaw between the North and the South did not open up the possibility of the two Koreas marching under one flag. Rather, the Olympics itself gave a new impetus for improving inter-Korean relations.

In his New Year’s speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced that "[the Winter Olympic Games] will serve as a good occasion for demonstrating our nation’s prestige and we earnestly wish the Olympic Games a success. From this point of view we are willing to dispatch our delegation [...] it is natural for us to share their [South Korean’s] pleasure over the auspicious event and help them."

Source: Rodong Sinmun

North & South Korean Olympic Team and Politics

This speech opened up new opportunities that led not only to the two Koreas marching under one flag, but also to competing as a joint team in the women’s ice hockey event.

Importantly, it also increased exchanges between them and led to three inter-Korean Summits between President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un. 

In September 2018, the two parties agreed to send a unified Korean team to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and to file a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics together.

However, in 2020 the reconciliation process halted and inter-Korean relations started to deteriorate. After President Moon left office in 2022, North-South relations entered a new low not seen for decades culminating in the DPRK giving up seeking unification as a national policy and naming South Korea as its primary foe. 

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North Korea and the Olympics Today (2024) 

As of the 9th August 2024, North Korea has won 6 medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

North Korea Paris Olympics 2024

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