The DPRK team for weightlifting refused to participate in the World Championships, which will be held in Anaheim (USA, California) from November 28 to December 5. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) received no explanation from the North Korean side about the reasons for such a decision. It is assumed that the failure of the DPRK team to participate in the tournament may be due to the tense relations between US President Donald Trump and the leader of the DPRK Kim Jong-Eun. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the DPRK national weightlifting team won gold and three silver medals, and at the World Championships in 2015 - gold, silver and two bronze medals,. Three active world records belong to North Korean athletes.

Earlier, the IWF suspended the weightlifting federations of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Moldova, Turkey, Bulgaria and Ukraine for a year from international starts due to anti-doping rule violations. Then the Secretary General of the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation, Boris Lobko, commented on the withdrawal of the Ukrainian national team from the competition: "We will not file any appeals. As they say, we pay for old sins ". Recall that in August, at the age of 35 years, died bronze medalist of the 2004 Olympics Velichko Cholakov.

The DPRK team refused to go to the World Cup in the USA.