It was a heartwarming moment that captured the Olympic spirit, but North Korea’s table tennis champions may be punished for joining a selfie with their opponents from the South.
Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, who won silver medals, are said to be undergoing “ideological evaluation” along with other athletes who returned from the Paris Games.
The assessment is a standard procedure to “cleanse” the team from “exposure to contamination” abroad, the Daily NK reported.
North Korean athletes were reportedly given “special instructions” not to interact with South Koreans or other foreign athletes in Paris, under threat of repercussions.
Since returning from France, the Olympic team is believed to be in the process of a three-stage ideological assessment process by the country’s ministry of sport.
It is said to last about a month, with the intention of purging any lingering influence of “non-socialist” culture.
North Korea is the ultimate “big bad” for the west.
Just say literally anything bad you want about them and the people at large will eat it up because they have already been primed to do so.
I mean, people genuinely believe that north Koreans are both starving having to live on grass and bugs, but also that they have to manually push trains around…logic doesn’t exist.
I mean… Many are indeed starving or going through hardships in the country side. The part about the train seems silly.