North Korea will not attend this year's Tokyo Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic, Pyongyang's sports ministry has said.
The move ends South Korea's hopes of using the games to restart talks with its nuclear-armed neighbour. The isolated North's participation in the last Winter Games, hosted by the South in Pyeongchang, was a key catalyst in the diplomatic rapprochement of 2018.
Leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong attended as his envoy in a blaze of publicity. The South's President Moon Jae-in seized the opportunity to broker talks between Pyongyang and Washington that led to a series of high-profile meetings between Mr Kim and then US president Donald Trump.