Table tennis champions said to be in ‘cleanse from exposure to contamination’ following podium picture with opponents

It was a heartwarming moment that captured the Olympic spirit, but North Korea’s table tennis champions may be punished for joining a selfie with their opponents from the South.

Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, who won silver medals, are said to be undergoing “ideological evaluation” along with other athletes who returned from the Paris Games.

The assessment is a standard procedure to “cleanse” the team from “exposure to contamination” abroad, the Daily NK reported.

North Korean athletes were reportedly given “special instructions” not to interact with South Koreans or other foreign athletes in Paris, under threat of repercussions.

Since returning from France, the Olympic team is believed to be in the process of a three-stage ideological assessment process by the country’s ministry of sport.

It is said to last about a month, with the intention of purging any lingering influence of “non-socialist” culture.

  • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I know it seems extreme but the best thing Paris can do for these poor souls is keep them indefinitely.

    • Antmz22@lemm.eeEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Kidnapping is based when the west does it to Asian?

      Then you wonder how colonialism happened…

      • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        Kidnapping is based with North Koreans if it means giving them a better, happier and healthier life and a chance to let these particular athletes escape what will inevitably be a death sentence for taking a picture with the South Koreans. Are you just clueless or what? Kim has enslaved their entire nation with an iron fist.

        • Antmz22@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          Kidnapping is based with North Koreans if it means giving them a better, happier and healthier life

          So as long as you believe you’ll give them a better life you can kidnap them? Isn’t that the logic north Korea themselves use to to isolate from the rest of the world?

          So the north Korea can’t use this logic to ban western influence but you can use it to kidnap people from a foreign nation and thats justified?

          let these particular athletes escape what will inevitably be a death sentence for taking a picture with the South Koreans.

          And you’re basing this “inevitable death sentence” off of what?

          An article, citing another article hosted by a “news agency” which is a NED/South Korean government United propaganda project, and cites “anonymous sources” who says they could have to publicly denounce the action?

          Are you just clueless or what? Kim has enslaved their entire nation with an iron fist.

          Meanwhile you’re ready to advocate for the kidnapping of people from another country to save them based on nothing.

          Pure white saviourism, as I said, people wonder how people allowed colonialism to happen…

          • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            Lol yeah, I do feel it’s justified. You are welcome to disagree, and that’s 100% ok. If you’re expecting me to respond and debate this, it’s not going to happen. Have a nice day!

            • Antmz22@lemm.eeEnglish
              0·
              2 months ago

              I wonder what North Koreans would think if they knew there was a “debate” on if it’s acceptable to kidnap and hold them against their will…they’d probably understand why their govt is so careful and isolationist when it comes to the west.

                • Antmz22@lemm.eeEnglish
                  0·
                  2 months ago

                  Yes, you obviously don’t care about North Koreans, you just like the idea of “punishing” their government by kidnapping their people…

  • MaDMaX99@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    And of course The telegraph has been informed by the North Korean authorities what they’re doing to those athletes…. Propaganda!!

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Seriously, how would we even know this? I hurt this was the onion or another satirical publication at first.

      • Antmz22@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        North Korea is the ultimate “big bad” for the west.

        Just say literally anything bad you want about them and the people at large will eat it up because they have already been primed to do so.

        I mean, people genuinely believe that north Koreans are both starving having to live on grass and bugs, but also that they have to manually push trains around…logic doesn’t exist.

        • jol@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          I mean… Many are indeed starving or going through hardships in the country side. The part about the train seems silly.

  • Antmz22@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Table tennis champions said to be in ‘cleanse from exposure to contamination’ following podium picture with opponents

    Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, who won silver medals, are said to be undergoing “ideological evaluation” along with other athletes who returned from the Paris Games.

    the Daily NK reported.

    Citing anonymous official sources in Pyongyang, the news outlet, which specialises in North Korean affairs

    Hmmm…

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_NK

    Daily NK is a recipient of funding from multiple institutions and private donors, including the National Endowment for Democracy,[4] an NGO funded by the U.S. Congress. Daily NK’s president is Lee Kwang-baek.

    The organization is part of a consortium with the Unification Media Group, which is a South Korea–based non-profit organization that produces and delivers radio content into North Korea via short-wave radio broadcasts.

    So it’s a NED funded propaganda network controlled by Lee Kwang-baek

    https://www.dailynk.com/english/author/lee-kwang-baek/

    Lee Kwang Baek has served as Daily NK’s president since 2014 alongside his role as president of Unification Media Group. He is an advisor to the Korea Hana Foundation

    https://koreahana.or.kr/home/eng/contents.do?menuPos=2

    The Korea Hana Foundation(KHF) is a non-profit public organization established by Ministry of Unification in 2010. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Unification

    The Ministry of Unification (Korean: 통일부; Hanja: 統一部) is an executive department of the South Korean government

    So the source for this story is another story citing “anonymous sources”, and that original story is from a US-South Korea joint propaganda project?

    Nice.

  • zenitsu@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    “Why don’t you say that three times: Within cells interlinked.”

    “Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked.”

  • KeenFlame@feddit.nuEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Fun. When the news came first time, the comments were all mansplaining to a guy that said “hope they will be okay” that the athletes definitely are not going to get in trouble for this. I don’t understand where people think their educated guesses are worth spreading like gospel when they aren’t experts at all on the question