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The medalists for mixed doubles table tennis, including the bronze-winning South Koreans and silver-winning North Koreans, take a selfie with a Samsung smartphone on the podium on July 30, 2024, at the Paris Olympics. (Yonhap)

The South Korean government has raised concerns about a possible violation of sanctions against North Korea after it was revealed that the North Korean Olympic team received Samsung smartphones distributed to all participants at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

On Thursday, US government-funded Radio Free Asia reported that North Korea’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) had collected the phones at the Olympic Rendezvous @Samsung pop-up in the Olympic Village. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) provided all 17,000 athletes participating in the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, including those from North Korea, with Galaxy Z Flip6 Olympic Edition smartphones as part of a sponsorship deal with Samsung Electronics, an official Olympic partner.

During a regular briefing, Lee Jae-woong, a spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated, “The UN Security Council, according to Article 7 of Resolution 2397, prohibits the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of all industrial machinery to North Korea,” noting that “smartphones are considered prohibited items under this resolution.” 

An official from the Ministry of Unification echoed these concerns, adding that the incident “could potentially breach Resolution 2397, which bans the supply, sale, and transfer of all electronic devices to North Korea.” However, the official also emphasized that “this matter is ultimately for the IOC, which oversees the Olympics, to address.” 

In other words, Samsung Electronics, as an official sponsor, provided the smartphones, but how they are distributed to the teams falls under the IOC’s jurisdiction. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2397 in December 2017 in response to North Korea’s launch of the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile.

The government appears to be in discussions with the IOC and French authorities to ensure the smartphones do not enter North Korea, as this would constitute a violation of sanctions. 

Lee stressed, “It is important that the prohibited items do not enter North Korea to avoid a breach of the resolution,” adding, “The government is making the necessary diplomatic efforts in cooperation with the international community to ensure the thorough implementation of the UN Security Council resolution and will continue these efforts in the future.” 

Another official from the Foreign Ministry stated, “First, we need to verify whether the North Korean athletes actually received the Galaxy smartphones, and if they did, we must ensure that this does not result in a violation of sanctions.” 

It has been reported that there are currently no discussions underway regarding future exemption measures related to the provision of smartphones to North Korean athletes.

This is not the first time there has been controversy over providing Samsung smartphones to North Korean Olympic athletes. During the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the organizing committee, concerned about violating sanctions, offered the smartphones to North Korean athletes on the condition that they return them before leaving the country, which led North Korea to refuse the phones altogether. 

Given that sanctions against Pyongyang have remained unchanged since then, questions are being raised about why the IOC provided Samsung smartphones to the North Korean team in Paris without any conditions. An IOC official told RFA that “as is the case for other NOCs, they are not obliged to return the phones.”

By Park Min-hee, senior staff writer

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