North Korean table tennis players may be punished for Olympic podium selfie with rivals from South

North Korea’s Ri Jong Sik (2nd L), and North Korea’s Kim Kum Yong (C) join in the selfie taken by South Korea’s Lim Jonghoon (L) in the Paris Olympics. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

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.