For most observers, it was proof of sport’s ability, if only for a fleeting moment, to bring people together – even when they live on opposite sides of one of the world’s most heavily armed borders.
But one of the most celebrated images of the Paris Olympics – a selfie taken by medal-winning table tennis players from either side of the divided Korean peninsula – appears to have landed the North Korea duo in trouble back home.
In a rare moment of Korean-style ping-pong diplomacy, the South Korean mixed doubles players Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin and the North Korean pairing Kim Kum-yong and Ri Jong-sik beamed as they posed for a selfie on the podium after receiving their bronze and silver medals at the South Paris Arena last month. The Chinese gold medallists, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, also appear in the photos.
One of the images was posted to the Games’ official Instagram site, where it drew hundreds of thousands of likes, while People magazine named it as one of the Olympics’ top 12 moments of sportsmanship in Paris.
But this week media reports claimed that Kim and Ri had been placed under “ideological scrutiny”. The Daily NK, a North Korea-focused website based in Seoul, quoted a high-ranking source in Pyongyang as saying that athletes and members of the North Korean Olympic Committee had been undergoing a month-long “ideological scrubbing” since returning home in mid-August – reportedly standard procedure for sportsmen and women who have been exposed to life outside the communist state.
The website reported the country’s athletes had been instructed not to interact with fellow competitors from other countries, including the South, and were warned that “fraternisers” could face punishment.
The table tennis players were reportedly singled out for criticism in a report submitted to officials for “grinning” as they posed alongside athletes from a country the regime has described as its “number one enemy”.
The selfie was snapped at a time of heightened tensions between the two Koreas, whose 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce but not a peace treaty. The North recently protested against joint military exercises involving the South Korean, US and Japanese forces, while growing cooperation between the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and Russian president Vladimir Putin have caused alarm across the region.
It isn’t clear what, if any, sanctions the table tennis players could face. That, the Korea Times suggested, could depend on how much remorse they show for momentarily lowering their guard in Paris.
North Korean athletes returning from international competitions undergo a three-stage “ideological review” that ends with self-reflection sessions by team members, in which they are expected to criticise “inappropriate behaviour” among their teammates, as well as reflecting on their own actions, the Korea Times said.
The newspaper quoted a source as saying that heartfelt expressions of contrition can spare athletes “political or administrative punishments”, the nature of which is unclear.
Human Rights Watch said the reports “demonstrate the North Korean government’s efforts to control behaviour beyond its borders.
“The International Olympic Committee … has a responsibility to protect athletes from all forms of harassment and abuse, as set out in the Olympic Charter,” it said in a statement. “North Korean athletes should not fear retribution for actions at the Games, not least when their actions embody the values of respect and friendship, on which the Olympic movement is built.”
While Kim and Ri won a silver medal, other athletes have reportedly been punished for underperforming.
The Daily NK cited the case of the North Korean football team, who were knocked out of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after losing all three of their group games and conceding 12 goals.
The players were reportedly subjected to a six-hour excoriation for “betraying” the communist nation’s ideological struggle, while their coach, Kim Jung-hun, was forced to work on a building site.
