Asian Games 2023: North Korea to let drug testers visit, Olympic Council of Asia says as it faces sanction for raising country’s flag in Hangzhou
- The flag has been on display at the Games, in defiance of a ruling by World Anti-Doping Agency, which found North Korean doping body to be non-compliant
- ‘North Korea has written a letter to [Wada] very recently telling them the borders have opened and they can send their doping control officers,’ OCA chief says
North Korea has agreed to let drug-testing officials back into the country, the Olympic Council of Asia said on Sunday, a move it hopes will temper a row over its flag being flown at the Asian Games.
North Korea has been largely closed off from the outside world since early 2020, when it shut its borders because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) declared North Korea’s national anti-doping body “non-compliant” in 2021 because it was unable to get its testers into the country and imposed sanctions.
But border restrictions appear to be easing slightly, and OCA acting director general Vinod Kumar Tiwari told reporters in Hangzhou: “North Korea has written a letter to them very recently telling them that the borders have opened and they can send their doping control officers for the testing.
“Wada has agreed and they will probably be sending their people to North Korea.”
The Montreal-based Wada confirmed the reopening, but said that “the broader political status of the country means verification and quality control activities are not straightforward”.
