North Korea banned from 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

North Korea has been banned from participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by an international committee for alleged doping violations.

The International Olympic Committee announced that North Korean athletes would be ineligible to compete at next year’s games due to “the additional evidence provided this week” of a state-sponsored doping program among its elite sportspeople, according to The Washington Post on Tuesday.

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) announced Wednesday that North Korea would be banned from participating in the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. IOC President Thomas Bach said, “The Olympic Charter is clear: no type of discrimination with regard to a country or person on grounds of race, religion, politics and other factors can ever be tolerated.”

North Korea has been accused by several nations for testing nuclear weapons against international law. The ban comes as part of an effort among countries around the world to pressure Pyongyang into ending its missile program and improving human rights abuses since Kim Jong-un rose to power after his father’s death in 2011.