How North Korea is making this Olympics theirs (video). scary beautiful
Some groups of fans in the stands of Pyeongchang are impossible to miss. They are bright, musical, but inaccessible for communication. These are comrades from the DPRK.
Spectators from the DPRK are among the loudest in these stands. Historic Match: Japan faces two Koreas at once, North and South. On the same ice! Fans sing about the support of athletes and, of course, love for the Motherland. Everything, as the great leader Kim Il Sung bequeathed.
Blossom, my Korea. The whole world is jealous of your contours in the atlas!
Women's ice hockey. United team of two countries. Hockey players from North Korea brought outdated wooden sticks instead of carbon sticks. Juche country under sanctions: import modern materials prohibited. Uniform in the colors of the North Korean flag. Fans from the DPRK are only women. Men don't clap, they don't shout. They look after security.
Always nearby in black jackets and masks are North Korean security officers. In hand Cell phones. There is something written all the time. Journalists are pushed back, for example, they demand not to shoot close. By the way, they speak English.
Close attention from the press. One rule - no interviews. During the break, all the attention of journalists is given only to fans from the DPRK. You literally can't get through to them!
Seeing their northern neighbors, southern Koreans take up cameras and mobile phones. Rushing to take a selfie. You can take pictures. To exchange a few words - no.
There are no empty seats in the stands. Huge queues before the match. Koreans want to remember this game. The opinion about such a team is ambiguous. The flag is the same, but the countries are not yet.
Of course, the clarity of the lines and the synchronicity of the fans' actions are striking. And they also sit in different sides of the ice palace in small groups. Before hockey, the North Koreans cheered for their skaters. Immediately after their performance, the fans leave the stands in orderly rows. Not waiting for the end of the competition.
Even the stairs they go down in a strict order. By two. Someone is holding hands. Female security officers even accompany them to the toilet. At some point, standing in the corridors, they stop for a moment and sing. But the Koreans watched the hockey match with the Japanese women to the end. Although their team lost 1:4. They wave their hand and leave the stadium almost the last.
In the corridors, security leads the fans to the emergency exit. Someone from the delegation hides his eyes. They contain tears. Then the trace is lost. No one should know on which bus, to which hotel guests from the closed North Korea will be taken. Only their song about endless sadness and homesickness will remain in memory.
North Korea and South Korea agree for the first time in 12 years attend the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korean Pyeongchang under one flag.
The Koreas will march at the opening ceremony under the Korean unification flag, which athletes have already used in Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and Turin in 2006.
In addition, North Korea agreed to send her delegation and speak at the Games of the unified women's hockey team.
Korrespondent.net figured out why Kim Jong-un toned down his militant rhetoric.
What did Seoul and Pyongyang agree on?
Negotiations between representatives of the DPRK and South Korea on a joint withdrawal lasted a week in the village of Phanmunjon on the line of demarcation of fire.
As a result, Korea agreed that the joint delegation at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, will be held under one flag.
Presumably, this will be the same flag under which the delegations of the DPRK and South Korea went to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2000, 2004 and 2006. Then the joint participation of the DPRK and South Korea in the Olympics was limited to the passage of a single delegation at the opening ceremony.
It is a white cloth with a blue outline of the Korean Peninsula depicted on it.
After 2006, the flag of South and North Korea was not used for the Olympics, and at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, relations between Pyongyang and Seoul seriously deteriorated, so the North Korean delegation refused to walk alongside the South Korean athletes.
The combined women's hockey team of the two Koreas will also perform at the Games. However, the coach of the South Korean team said that the unification of the teams could put an end to Seoul's chances to win a gold medal in this sport.
Note that in this sport, both countries have never achieved significant success, speaking mainly in the second division. The women's team of South Korea was admitted to the Olympics only because this country is the host of the Games.
In total, the DPRK will send a delegation of 550 people to the Olympics in South Korea, including athletes, officials, spectators, artists and journalists.
New Year's Kim Jong Un
The reason for the shift in relations between the two countries was the New Year's address of the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader said that the country would like to take part in the Olympics, which will be held in Pyeongchang, and is ready for negotiations.
Seoul responded to the words of Kim Jong-un, and on January 9, North and South Korea held talks for the first time since December 2015. Negotiations were held at the level of ministers in charge of national unification.
The topic was the readiness of the DPRK, announced earlier, to send its athletes to the Winter Olympics. Political issues were not raised.
At the end of the negotiations, the DPRK announced that it would send athletes, a support group and a delegation of high-ranking officials to the Olympics in South Korea.
Pyongyang also announced that they intend to send not only athletes, but also artistic groups to South Korea. In Seoul, this proposal was generally approved and promised to lift sanctions from the "northerners" for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.
In Washington, in connection with the agreements reached, they agreed to wait until the end of the competition and postpone joint exercises with South Korea.
How strong is North Korea?
At the Summer Olympics, North Koreans had a total of 54 team medals. This is much more than such more major countries like India or Nigeria.
Most of the country's Olympic successes are related to weightlifting. North Korean weightlifters have set three world and two Olympic records.
At the last Games in Rio de Janeiro, they won seven medals, including two gold medals, as a result of which the DPRK was in the middle of the list in the final team standings.
Women's football team North Korea/Getty
In terms of football, the North Korean women's team is ranked 11th in the FIFA world rankings. Although the team missed out on the 2019 World Cup by failing the qualifiers, they managed to win the East Asian Cup last December.
The men's football team in its entire history has taken part in only two world championships. Now in the world ranking she is in 126th place.
In the last international game, the DPRK drew with the Chinese team 1:1. Now the North Koreans are coached by the Norwegian Jorn Andersen.
The women's ice hockey match between Japan and the unified team of Korea drew a packed stadium. Special correspondent "SE" spent all three periods in the sector with fans from the DPRK. It was cool!
Group B
Korea - Japan - 1:4 0:2, 1:0, 0:2)
goals: Kubo - 2 (H. Toko, Ukita), 1:07 - 0:1. It - 1 (bol., Koike, Yoneyama), 3:58 - 0:2. Griffin - 1 (Park Yoon Jung), 29:31 - 1:2. Koike - 1 (Bol., Hosoyamada, Yoneyama), 51:42 - 1:3. Ukita - 2 (p.v.), 58:33 - 1:4.
Goalkeepers: Shin So Jong (57:48 - 58:33) - Konishi.
Fine: 6 - 4.
throws: 13 (4+3+6) - 44 (13+13+18).
Judges: Fialova, Hertrich.
Dmitry ZELENOV from Pyeongchang
I have never seen such queues at any competition. The approach to the Gwangdong hockey arena was as crowded as before the opening ceremony. And this is women's hockey, Korea - Japan.
Lines before the match Korea - Japan. Photo by Dmitry ZELENOV, "SE"
The Koreans have a united team. This was done as part of a beautiful story about reconciliation and reunification, it was specially invented for. Back in the fall, they wanted to cancel the Games due to the aggravation between the North and the South, and now there is a general parade at the opening ceremony, a flag with the silhouette of the peninsula, and now - hockey.
It is said that the peace process has confused all the cards of the South Korean team. Allegedly, she was well prepared, but 12 people from the north were added to the application, and they weakened the team. Maybe so. In any case, united Korea lost to the Japanese - 1:4. But it seems that this is the case when sports results have faded into the background.
The stadium is full, every move by Korean female hockey players is roared, and thousands of people are waving the flags of united Korea - a blue peninsula on a white background. Now I also have one - presented by comrades from the DPRK.
Dmitry ZELENOV (left) and Koreans. Photo by Dmitry ZELENOV, "SE"
Beautiful girls in identical hats and olympics - white-blue-red - organizedly occupy two central sectors opposite each other. There are about 80 of them in total. On the sides sit men aged - accompanying. Possibly in rank. The girls go in formation - in pairs, this also speaks of military training. But the faces are open, northern women smile at passers-by. Here to talk - no. This is difficult. They were seated in such a way that the same men guard the perimeter.
Fans of a single team of Korea. Photo by Dmitry ZELENOV, "SE"
The match begins, and with it the show begins. The super-coordinated singing of the North Korean sectors attracts no less attention than what is happening on the ice. The stadium applauds every song as well as the successful actions of the team.
In the middle of the second period, volunteers are forced to intervene - there are so many who want to get closer to the fans from the DPRK that they interfere with watching hockey - they stand in the aisles and take pictures. Again, North Korean cheerleaders are not embarrassed - they wave at the cameras, laugh. And tighten new songs, one more beautiful than the other.
What are they singing? I ask a lady from South Korea about this, who is sitting in the next sector.
These are popular folk songs that are also known in South Korea,” she says. We even sing along.
- How do you generally feel about the idea of a united team?
Very good! This is an important step towards the reunification of Koreans.
- Coherence of the fans is sometimes frightening. Are you afraid?
Oh no, it's not scary, it's beautiful. To be honest, I think they are professional singers, they sing very well.
- Would you like to talk to them?
Yes, but I don't think they can.
The rest of the Koreans react to such support in different ways. Someone is taking pictures with interest, someone is smiling, and someone is waving the usual flags of South Korea.
The main thing is that there should be no propaganda, - a young guy, a resident of Gangneung and a big fan of hockey, tells me. - It's good that we made a single team, but now everyone is looking at these fans, and not at the game.
Fans of a single team of Korea. Photo by Dmitry ZELENOV, "SE"
The match ends, and with hundreds of selfies in front of it, the perfect sector gets up and leaves. If North Korea wanted to show itself at this Olympics with new side, a unique country succeeded. Surely someone will find these songs creepy - everything is so synchronous, harmonious, some kind of dystopia.
But the main thing is different. Fans from both antagonist countries supported one team that evening. Albeit in different ways, but one and its own - Korea.
In Seoul. The DPRK wanted to hold part of the Games on its territory, was going to hold its own opening and closing, but a constructive dialogue with South Korea did not work out. In such cases, the leaders of North Korea do not think for a long time, but simply declare a boycott of all living things.
This time, the unexpected happened. The heads of the countries very quickly agreed to be close friends during the Olympic Games, up to the joint passage at the ceremonies and the performance of the combined women's hockey team. Joyful President Bach readily issued special invitations to North Korean athletes who had not qualified anywhere and began to rest on his laurels under the cry "Thomas the unifier."
As a result, 22 athletes arrived, but only two of them were officially selected - figure skaters Yeom Tae Ok and Kim Chu Sik. And then the NOC of Korea did not have time to apply in time, so they, like everyone else, received from the "wild card". In other words, they were declared for the Games in excess of the quota.
Nobody escapes the toilet
Together with the athletes, a huge delegation arrived in South Korea, among which there was a place for a support group. Yes, it's not a joke, they have support groups. They look like ordinary women.
But upon closer examination, it is impossible to get rid of the thought that you have androids in front of you. Not phones, of course, but humanoid robots. Judge for yourself.
Girls are brought to every competition where athletes from North Korea participate. On the morning of February 14, identically dressed Korean women arrived for figure skating at the Gangneung Ice Arena with small bags containing two flags - North Korea and white with a blue peninsula. They proceeded to the sector in a clear formation, took their places on the podium and froze. This is not an exaggeration. Before the appearance of Yeom Tae Ok and Kim Chu Sik, not a single person uttered a word, did not react to what was happening, did not move at all - there was no command. At the edges of each row, men sat and carefully watched what was happening. Naturally, not on the ice, but among the patrons.
During the break between warm-ups, the girls were allowed to go to the toilet. They were, however, immediately followed by three elderly men in team uniforms. At some point it seemed that they would go to the end. Inside, however, the escorts did not go in, but they blocked all exit points from the toilet. Five minutes - and the delegation returned to the podium in formation.
Selfies must go on
The most interesting thing began when a North Korean couple took to the ice. The girl standing at the very bottom waved her hands, and the red and white sector immediately exploded. “Yom Tae Ok! Kim Choo Sik!" the girls shouted loudly, waving their flags furiously. Any company of the guard of honor would envy the synchronicity of the performance. Now all attention was paid to the sector, and not to the ice. There, Yom Tae Ok and Kim Chu Sik, who were not interesting to anyone, modestly rolled out their program.
As soon as the skaters found out their scores and went to the locker room, the fans immediately began to gather. We carefully rolled up the flags, took the bags and began to go down one by one.
Do you think they left the arena in formation, loaded into military trucks and left for their base? Nothing happened. The girls lined up in the hall of the arena, for a long time courageously portrayed the background for dozens of selfies, and then ... they sang. Piercing, tender and so sensual that they themselves cried. At that moment it became clear - not robots.
The girls walked to the exit through a living corridor, smiling at every fan and journalist. Someone through force, someone sincerely. And it became clear that they would not go unnoticed until the end of the Olympics. And the number of selfies taken against their background will exceed all reasonable limits.
The world community fears that the North Korean athletes, who did not win a single medal at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, will face the same fate as the football players in 1966 - a concentration camp.
The most infamous case is the North Korean soccer team that made it to the second round of the 1966 FIFA World Cup. After losing 5-3 to the Portuguese team, Korean athletes who were seen having fun with local women were arrested upon their return to their homeland, writes The Sun.
Former leader Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader of the DPRK, ordered them to be sent to a concentration camp.
North Korean defector Kang Chol-Hwan claims he met with the team while they were in Yodoka Prison, or Camp 15, which is for political prisoners.
In his book Pyongyang Aquariums, he claims that footballer Park Seung-jin became famous for his ability to endure torture.
Another prisoner was nicknamed "Cockroach" because he ate insects to keep from starving. He often ended up in solitary confinement.
Although this case is the most well-known fact of the country's tough attitude towards the "failure" of athletes, it is far from the only one.
FIFA was forced to investigate reports that another North Korean football team was "punished" after the 2010 World Cup.
A similar treatment awaited the Olympic team, which traveled to Rio 2016 and returned with two gold medals.
“Those who win medals will be rewarded with better housing allocations, better rations… and possibly other gifts from the regime,” said North Korea expert Toshimitsu Shigemura.
Defender Kim Hyun-soo, who fled the country in 2009, said that both athletes and coaches were punished with several months of hard work because they failed to live up to expectations.
According to a UN report, there are dozens of secret camps on the territory of the DPRK, modeled after Stalin, where political opponents of the leader are subjected to unimaginable torture.
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