For the first time in 12 years, no North Korean athlete has qualified for the Winter Olympics, though they nonetheless plan to send a representative to the Games this month in Sochi, Russia.

North Korean athletes have participated in the Winter Olympics six times since the Innsbruck Games in 1966. These are the first Games since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, that the North Korean team will have missed.

Also, the Yonhap News Agency quotedan official from the International Olympic Committee who said that no athlete from the North would receive a special “wild card”