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.

  • brezel
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    1053 months ago

    it’s incredible how it is possible to enslave an entire nation. these poor people.

    • @[email protected]
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      183 months ago

      Thanks for actually delving into the sources. Telegraph already isn’t the best source and it seemed hard to believe.

  • @PugJesus
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    303 months ago

    The Workers’ Paradise of North Korea is clearly just trying to protect itself from the Globalhomo menace /s

    • @[email protected]
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      3 months ago

      Yup. Also, they’re happy and fine. Everything you hear to the contrary is just western propaganda.

  • @Nurse_Robot
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    3 months ago

    Why the hell do we allow North Koreans to join us in anything internationally? Brutal dictatorships should not be enabled in any way

    • @[email protected]
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      613 months ago

      Precisely for the togetherness that you see in that picture…and NK had to see it as a threat, of course.

    • @Viking_Hippie
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      63 months ago

      Yeah, it’s pretty weird that they’re banning (rightly but not thoroughly enough) Russia, but North Korea, Israel, and China get to participate as equals with the countries that AREN’T currently committing genocide, starving millions, and doping like there’s no tomorrow.

      It’s almost like the ACTUAL reasoning of the IOC is nonpublic and laundry based.

      • @[email protected]
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        143 months ago

        I’m pretty sure Russia only got banned because they had a state-sponsored doping system. Long as you don’t get caught with that, you can be as authoritarian as you want.

        • @BetaBlake
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          63 months ago

          That and war aggression

        • @Viking_Hippie
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          13 months ago

          If that was true, how come China’s allowed to compete with no restrictions after having 8 of their swimmers test positive in Tokyo and more just weeks before the games?

          • @[email protected]
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            43 months ago

            I’m no expert. But probably there just isn’t enough evidence yet to accuse China as a whole of systematically doping its athletes. I’d imagine they err on the side of “allowing participation” with this kind of stuff.

  • @[email protected]
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    173 months ago

    They must have been exposed to too much light in Paris. It is the city of light after all.

  • @p5yk0t1km1r4ge
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    3 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    93 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    43 months ago

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

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

  • @[email protected]
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    13 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