North Korean state television has aired its first coverage of the Tokyo Olympic Games – two days after the closing ceremony, the BBC reports.
According to local news reports, Korean Central Television aired 70 minutes of a women’s football match between the UK and Chile this week.
The match was actually played weeks earlier on 21 July.
North Korea has previously aired the Olympic Games a few days after its opening ceremony, according to Yonhap.
According to specialist site NK News, the women’s match was aired without commentary and in low resolution – leaving it unclear how the footage was obtained.
In past years, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union has offered Pyongyang footage of the games through a partnership with South Korean broadcaster SBS, according to US tech blog North Korea Tech.
It is not clear where they got this year’s footage from.
North Korea did not send a delegation to the Tokyo 2020 Games, saying it wanted to protect its athletes from Covid-19.
Pyongyang says it has no cases of the virus but experts say this is unlikely.
In 2018, North and South Korea entered a joint team at the Winter Olympics which led to a series of historic summits.
North Korea had sent 22 athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea – along with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong – a move which helped initiate diplomacy with South Korea and the US.
This year marks the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since 1988, when it boycotted the Seoul Games during the Cold War.
