North Korea yesterday abruptly canceled its participation in the World Student Games, or Universiade due to get underway here this week, saying that South Korea had become too dangerous for its citizens.
The semi-official Committee for Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland said in a statement that the North will not take part in the Universiade as the South had become a "very dangerous place" for North Koreans.
It took issue with recent anti-Pyongyang rallies held by right-wing groups in the South, which the statement said were an affront to North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-il.
The statement, aired by North Korea's Central Broadcasting Station and monitored in Seoul, accused South Korean authorities of "turning a blind eye" to provocations by "extreme right-wing groups."
"It has become obvious that we can not send our athletes to the university games in the South which has become a dangerous place where people do harm to the safety and dignity of their own brothers," it said.
On Friday, South Korean right-wing groups, including veterans of the inter-Korean war, burned North Korean national flags and effigies of Kim Jong-il during rallies to protest Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
"The South Korean authorities must offer an official apology over the Aug. 15 incident," the statement said.
South Korea made no formal response to the North's statement, saying it had yet to receive official notice from Pyongyang of the withdrawal.
Ra Jong-yil, national security advisor for South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, said he would discuss the matter with related government agencies in an attempt to gauge North Korea's exact moves and intention.
"There have been many radical demonstrations such as burning national symbols in South Korea which is accustomed to watching US flags also burned. North Korea does not understand this properly," Ra told reporters.
The 218-member North Korean delegation, including 88 athletes and 24 journalists, had been due to leave Pyongyang for the World Student Games early Sunday in two passenger planes but the flights were cancelled.
The cancellation had earlier been blamed on technical problems.
This year's Universiade, which runs until Aug. 31, is scheduled to open Thursday in the South Korean city of Daegu, with 11,000 athletes and officials from 175 countries taking part.
Organizers earlier said that North Korea's participation would help attract public attention to the university games.
The Stalinist North has rarely taken part in international sports events held in the South since the peninsula's separation into two Koreas in 1945 and the ensuing 1950-1953 Korean War.
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