N. Korean, Iranian athletes denied smartphone handout
Gangneung (South Korea), Feb 7 (IANS) PyeongChang Olympic organisers won’t provide North Korean and Iranian players with Samsung smartphones, which are available free to all other athletes, for fear of violating international sanctions on the countries, officials said Wednesday.
Samsung Electronics has offered some 4,000 units of the Galaxy Note 8 Olympic Edition to all athletes and International Olympic Committee officials visiting PyeongChang, reports Yonhap news agency.
But they will not given to 22 North Korean and four Iranian athletes, as such handouts may violate United Nations’ sanctions that ban providing the countries with luxury goods and products that can potentially be used for military purposes, the committee said.
The Galaxy Note 8 is the latest flagship smartphone released by Samsung, boasting the signature S Pen stylus and a dual-lens camera setup.
The special edition comes with an Olympic-themed wallpaper, along with an application that provides details about the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The price tag of a 64-gigabyte Galaxy Note 8 normally sits at around 1.09 million won ($1,045) in South Korea.
