DPRK Prepares Punishment for Athletes for Selfie with South Korean Representatives.

North Korean table tennis players Kim Kum Yong and Ri Jong Sik could be punished for a selfie on the Olympic podium with their South Korean rivals. This was reported by The Guardian citing Korean media.

One of the photos was posted on the official Olympic Games Instagram page – it gathered hundreds of thousands of likes, and People magazine named it one of the 12 best moments of this year's competitions in Paris.

However, due to the selfie taken by the table tennis medalists from South Korea, DPRK representatives are now under "ideological control." It is unclear what punishments the athletes might face – the Korea Times suggested that it could depend on how much the tennis players "repent" for their actions.

The athletes were criticized for smiling when they posed together with the team from South Korea, which the DPRK regime called "enemy number one." They were previously ordered not to communicate with competitors from other countries.

North Korean athletes returning from international competitions undergo a three-stage "ideological check," which ends with team members attending "self-reflection sessions" – they must criticize the "improper behavior" of their teammates, as well as reflect on their own actions. This is a standard procedure for athletes and women who have experienced life outside the DPRK.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch condemned such pressure on athletes from North Korea.

The actions of the North Korean tennis players embody the values of respect and friendship on which the Olympic movement is built, they write there.

Punishment of Footballers in the 2010 World Cup

This is not the first similar case of criticism of athletes by the DPRK authorities. The Daily NK writes about a situation when the North Korean football team was punished for losing three matches at the 2010 World Cup. At that Time, the footballers underwent a six-hour punishment for "betraying" the ideological struggle of the communist nation, and their coach Kim Jong Hun was forced to work on a construction site.

Recall that during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, the announcers introduced the South Korean team as the DPRK team. Due to this, South Korean authorities requested a personal meeting with the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach, reports Yonhap agency.

By the way, the first year of a full-scale war between South Korea and the DPRK will cost the global economy about $4 trillion. This is reported by Bloomberg Economics. This amounts to 3.9% of the world's total GDP. At the same time, the agency believes that a war between the two countries is "very unlikely," but if it starts, the consequences will be devastating.