North Korean Athletes May be Punished for Olympic Selfie With South Korean Team
The North Korean athletes who posed for a historic selfie with their South Korean counterparts at this summer’s Olympic Games are reportedly undergoing an “ideological evaluation” in Pyongyang.
The disturbing news was reported by the Daily NK which was told by an anonymous, “high-ranking source” that table tennis athletes Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong might be in trouble after a “negative ideological assessment.”
Ri and Kim won the silver medal in the event and subsequently took a selfie with their South Korean and Chinese rivals with the moment being celebrated as an emblem for cross-border unity. But the North Korean authorities don’t see it that way.
North Korea and South Korea are still technically at war with each other and the Pyongyang source tells the Daily NK that grinning while standing next to athletes from Seoul is viewed as a misstep.
The report apparently criticizes Kim for smiling when the selfie was taken and Ri for “taking a long moment to smile at athletes from other countries after stepping down from the podium.”
The athletes may be let off lightly for their crimes but if they are punished it wouldn’t be the first time North Korean athletes visiting a foreign country for a sports event have been disciplined.
The Telegraph notes that in 2021, the coach of the national soccer team was forced to become a construction worker after they scored no goals at the World Cup in 2010. The players were said to have been subjected to a “six-hour barrage of criticism” for performing badly.
Ideological Scrubbing
According to Daily NK’s source, it is standard in North Korea to conduct assessments on athletes who have attended international sports competitions. They are carried out by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports.
“The assessment begins the moment the athletes return home. They have to ‘scrub’ their ideology as soon as possible,” the source tells Daily NK.
In North Korea, spending time abroad is believed to “contaminate people” as they are exposed to nonsocialist societies. “Ideological scrubbing” is a way to remove these influences.
