Bronze medal winners Shin Yu-bin (second from right) and Lim Jong-hoon (left) of South Korea take a selfie with North Korean and Chinese athletes (July 30, South Paris Arena, France) 4 during the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles Tournament) at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Korea Times Photo provided by Seo Jae-hoon
Posted by: KTimes
North Korean table tennis players have been spotted practicing on TV, but apparently had no problem taking selfies with South Korean players at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
North Korea's state broadcaster, Korean Central Television (KCTV), on Wednesday aired footage of athletes and coaches training at the Pyongyang Youth Street Sports Village, highlighting their efforts to bring honor to the homeland with the gold medal. Among the players who drew attention were Kim Geum-young and Ri Jeong-sik, who won silver medals in table tennis mixed doubles.
Kim said in an interview, “We gained valuable experience and lessons from last year's Asian Games and this year's Olympics. We are training hard for future international tournaments.''
Kim and Lee attracted attention at the Paris Olympics by taking selfies with South Korean bronze medalists Shin Yu-bin and Im Jeong-hoon, and China's gold medalists Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin. This selfie was featured by several international media outlets as one of the most memorable moments of the Summer Olympics.
However, there were concerns that these players would face punishment upon their return to North Korea for violating a directive not to interact with foreign players, especially South Korean players.
North Korean table tennis player Kim Geum-young appeared on Korean Central Television on Wednesday. Captured from KCTV
Daily NK reported last month, citing sources in Pyongyang, that the players underwent a thorough ideological review upon their return.
The report said officials were dissatisfied with the players' smiling faces and interactions with the South Korean team, which the regime views as its main adversary. Some, including North Korean defector-turned-politician Park Chung-kwon, have warned that the players could face up to two to three years of forced labor or, in extreme cases, imprisonment in a political prison camp. I am guessing that there is.
However, considering recent footage of them training, these concerns appear to be unfounded. It is still possible that they received light penalties and subsequently returned to training, or that North Korean authorities chose to forego punitive measures and instead display them on television to avoid international scrutiny.
This article from Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, was translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.
