North Korean Athlete in Chinese SNS Sparks Attention
An Chang-ok, Collar Full of Exchange Badges
North Korean athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics were seen interacting with foreign athletes and spectators while minimizing contact with South Korean media.
According to the US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the 3rd, a video was posted on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu on the 29th of last month showing North Korea's female gymnastics "star" An Chang-ok exchanging pins with someone. An Chang-ok wore a badge featuring a panda and the Eiffel Tower on her Olympic identification card (AD card) lanyard, which was given by the other person, and showed a badge with the North Korean flag, the English name of North Korea (DPR Korea), and a man hanging from gymnastics rings, calling it her "favorite pin."
North Korean female gymnastics 'star' An Chang-ok exchanging badges. [Photo by Pandacandy, Chinese SNS Xiaohongshu video capture]
Athletes participating in international sports events like the Olympics often exchange pins to build camaraderie. An Chang-ok’s AD card lanyard was adorned with badges depicting the flags of China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and others.
The person who posted the video introduced themselves to RFA as the seller of the panda badge that An Chang-ok received and stated that a Chinese volunteer filmed and sent the video. The volunteer who filmed the video is a Chinese man who drives a bus in the Olympic Village and posted a photo on his social media after receiving an autograph from North Korean table tennis player Kim Kum-yong and taking a picture together.
Additionally, a photo capturing the moment when Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong, partners in mixed doubles table tennis, took a "selfie" with a foreign man while watching a table tennis match from the stands was also posted on Chinese social media. Both were in uniform, watching their teammate Byun Song-kyung’s match in the stands, looking somewhat stiffly at the smartphone camera of the man taking the photo.
Kim Kum-yong also signed a table tennis paddle when a Chinese official requested an autograph that day.
These behaviors of North Korean athletes contrast with their cold attitude toward South Korean media, such as refusing to answer questions when encountering them in shared media zones or training venues rather than official press conferences.
Kim Mi-rae and Jo Jin-mi, North Korea’s first Olympic medalists in diving, ignored South Korean reporters’ questions in the shared media zone and only spoke with foreign journalists, while Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong also declined interviews in the shared media zone.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that "North Korean athletes avoid contact with South Korean media, but freely interact with athletes from other countries and volunteers in the Olympic Village."
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