According to Daily NK sources, the report on these athletes criticized them for “grinning” next to South Korean athletes, who are viewed as primary adversaries by the authorities. Kim Kum-yong was specifically noted for smiling during the selfie, while Ri Jong-sik faced criticism for smiling as he observed athletes from other countries after stepping off the podium.
Posted by ericwanggg
12 comments
Jeeze. And to think there were kids “feeling bad for feelings” of DPRK athletes keeping to themselves and not doing the whole public socializing with outside Olympic exp.
Let’s just ban North Korea if they punish these kids.
Eh, source is a South Korean newspaper known for taking a very hard, not always factual, stance against North Korea. It’s famously a very hardline, conservative source.
Take this with a giant heaping of salt.
Edit: Ok, the paper is quoting reporting from Daily NK, which makes this even more questionable. Daily NK consistently uses anonymous “sources” which has a “spotty at best” track record. I.e. see [https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/5/6/why-the-western-media-keeps-getting-north-korea-wrong](https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/5/6/why-the-western-media-keeps-getting-north-korea-wrong)
Didn’t they make all the winners take selfies? I saw them hand one of them on the podium something to take a selfie and then hand it back every time. Not that I’m expecting logic from the North Koreans in charge.
lol sure the literally best piece of north korean PR in like 5 years will definitely get them punished
They live in North Korea. They’re already being punished.
I think this is actually what they want. South Korea and North Korea were a joint hockey team at a competition before. I think they want to be see as a united Korea
OMG, this is crazy. Why can’t they these kids be happy. They should celebrate because these athletes gave them medals.
Of course.
I could bet a lot of money that an “anonymous source” would say this kind of thing about the selfie
They are not going to be punished. NK and SK has sent combined delegations to Olympics before so being punished for this would be super weird.
That can’t be true. This sounds like South Korean propaganda.