Against International Law To Give Samsung Phones To North Korean Olympians?

Unlike other Olympians, North Korea’s athletes will not receive the free Samsung smartphones that are supposed to be given to every competitor at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

download - 2024-08-10T023112.347 — North Korean delegation at the opening ceremony of the “2024 Paris Olympics” | AP

Samsung partnered with the Olympics this year to give away special edition Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones to each athlete competing this year. But on August 8, the South Korea-based tech giant told the media that including North Korea in the giveaway would go violate the UN sanctions against the country over its nuclear and missile program.

The UN members are required to prevent a long list of items from entering North Korea that could be used for “nefarious purposes.” According to Jean H Lee, a former Associated Press journalist who opened the first AP bureau in Pyongyang, North Korea, things like machines to make baby food are also prohibited under the list of sanctioned goods as they could be repurposed for biochemical weapons.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said that smartphones are also included in this list under Security Council Resolution 2397, passed in 2017, which banned the sale or transfer of all industrial machinery to North Korea.

Lee Jae Woong, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson, told the media that Seoul would make the required diplomatic efforts to ensure that the prohibited items don’t enter North Korea. But even if the athletes took the phones home, he added, it wouldn’t be of much use. Since North Korea has severe restrictions on internet accessibility, Lee said it was “highly unlikely that they would be able to use a Samsung smartphone in North Korea.”

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the phones allotted to the North Korean athletes were sent to the Olympic Village, but they were never received. It is unclear where those phones went.

This is, however, not the first time this smartphone issue has come up regarding North Korean participants. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, North Koreans refused to receive Samsung devices offered by the organizing committee under the condition that they would return them before heading home. After skipping the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo due to self-imposed quarantine, North Korea returned to the global stage with 16 athletes participating in seven different sports at the Paris Games this year.