Public shaming likely awaits North Koreans

Having spent the Olympics in Pyeongchang competing not for medals but to avoid inevitable lastplace finishes in nearly every sport, North Korea’s 22 athletes may be publicly shamed when they return home.

Historically, the North Koreans have always performed poorly at the Winter Olympics. This year is no different. The unified Korean women’s hockey team finished without a win and the North Korean alpine skiers in the men’s giant slalom event only placed better than the athletes who couldn’t complete the race.

Their performance at the Games is perhaps best represented by Jong Kwang Bom, a speedskater who faceplanted on the ice only seconds after the gun to start the race went off and appeared to try to trip a Japanese skater. When the race restarted, he fell down again.

“Within a week we’ll know what if any repercussions these poor souls when they went back to North Korea suffered for not showing the world how wonderful the regime is,” said Jacob Kovalio, an associate professor at Carleton University and expert in Asia-Pacific history.

Public shaming in North Korea is done in order to pressure people into improving their performance, Kovalio said. The sessions involve a period of self-criticism where the party member being shamed must admit to their own mistakes. When this is done, the group of people listening to the admission will then jointly lambaste the person with their own criticism.