A spokesman for the DPRK Olympic Committee issued the following press statement Friday:

The Japan sports world has reached the extremes in its shameless act designed to seize Tok Island, part of the inviolable territory of Korea, even in defiance of the sacred idea and spirit of the Olympic movement.

The Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee on an Olympic torch relay map posted on the official website of the 32nd Olympics marked Tok Island, the territory of the DPRK, as "Japanese territory", and as this sparked off a flurry of censure and protests, it reeled off excuses that "it is purely a geographical representation" and "no political statement was intended in its creation".

It is irrefutable that Tok Island is part of the inalienable territory of Korea in view of international law and from historical and geographical points of view.

Political issues are inseparable from territorial issues, and it is shameless and groundless sophism to insist that it is just a geographical concept that part of Korea is marked as part of Japan.

The act of abusing the Olympic Games for realizing territorial ambition though they are supposed to promote friendship and harmony is a mockery of sportspersons all over the world and the desire of mankind for peace and an intolerable provocation violating the sovereignty of the Korean nation.

Presumably, Japan and the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee are the only country and Olympic organizing committee on earth which go so shameless as to mark the territory of other country as their land on the Olympic torch relay map and maintain that it is simply a geographical representation and no political statement was intended in the creation of the map by taking the advantage of hosting the Olympics.

Lurking behind the sordid act committed by the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee by taking the advantage of hosting the Olympics is Japan's dirty scheme to create a precedent for marking Tok Island as "Japan's territory" at future international sports games and to establish Japan's dominium over Tok Island in the world.

The International Olympic Committee's response to the wrong assertion made by the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee is also problematic.

The IOC categorically opposed marking Tok Island on the Korean peninsula flag for the 23rd Winter Olympic Games in Phyongchang, south Korea, in February 2018, stating it is a political issue to mark Tok Island on the Korean peninsula flag to be used by the single north-south team and political neutrality must be maintained in sports and Olympics.

In July 2019 the IOC in a letter sent to the chairman of the DPRK Olympic Committee said that it reminded the Games Organizing Committee of its strong stand on political neutrality regarding the description of Tok Island as "Japan's territory" on the Olympic torch relay map by the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

But with an abrupt change in its stand on July 2 the world body forwarded letters to its members, honorary members and honor members which said that Tok Island issue is the one related to the Olympic Games Organizing Committee and therefore, when the issue is tabled, they should take note of the assertion of the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

The DPRK Olympic Committee denounces the sinister behavior of the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee of insulting the sacred charter and idea of the Olympics and justifying its territorial claim by abusing the opportunity of hosting the games, and is compelled to call to account the International Olympic Committee for its double-dealing behavior.

The 32nd Olympic Games Organizing Committee must correct the Olympic torch relay map though belatedly, and the International Olympic Committee should behave with impartiality as befitting the international organization overseeing Olympic movement worldwide.

Rodong Sinmun