Here's Why All Olympic Athletes Were Gifted Free Smartphones Except The North Koreans

Just like college football players in bowl games, Olympians, too, are greeted with complimentary gifts to "thank" them for their participation. And in the 2024 Paris Games, those goodie bags included a free smartphone.

As part of Samsung's partnership with the Olympics, the company provided each of the athletes with a Galaxy Z Flip 6 and encouraged them to use the phones to take selfies throughout the events.

It seems like an innocent enough promotion. But there was just one problem: According to the South Korean government, the Paris swag bag violated sanctions handed down against North Korea over its nuclear and missile program. Samsung is headquartered in Suwon-si, South Korea.

According to the Associated Press, "South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said smartphones are among the items banned under Security Council Resolution 2397 passed in 2017, which prohibits the supply, sale or transfer to North Korea of ‘all industrial machinery.'"

The resolution does not limit the sanctions to North Korea’s government. South Korean officials clarified that smartphones would be banned no matter how they entered the country.

North Korea (or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as it's generously referred to in the Olympic Games) has 14 athletes taking part in the Paris Olympics, competing in seven sports. But IOC officials say that none of these athletes received a smartphone.

"We can confirm that the athletes of the National Olympic Committee of DPRK have not received the Samsung phones," a spokesperson for the IOC said, per Reuters.

North Korea has 14 athletes competing in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

(Photo by Aytac Unal/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The smartphone issue previously came up at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, when North Koreans refused to accept Samsung devices that the organizing committee had offered under condition that they return them before going home.