North Korea’s cheerleaders
Kim Jong-un dispatched a band of heavily guarded cheerleaders to boost the country’s team at the winter Olympics
IT WAS a sight the world thought it would never witness: athletes from North and South Korea walking under one flag, seemingly united in the spirit of sport. To the transfixed millions, it was a warm and fuzzy moment second to none as the beaming competitors entered the stadium in Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Simmering tensions between the two countries were temporarily forgotten – yet it wasn’t long before something else was dominating headlines.
And it had all the hallmarks the globe has come to expect from the pariah nation ruled with an iron fist by Kim Jongun: a shot of the bizarre, a dose of the sinister and an injection of what-the-hell.
Instead of the focus being on skiers and skaters from North Korea during the snow-and-ice spectacle, all eyes have been on the country’s 229-strong squad of cheerleaders – and it’s a band of chanting beauties unlike anything the sporting world has seen before.
Footage of the women egging on their team during an ice hockey match against Switzerland soon went viral.
The women, dressed in matching red outfits and clutching North Korean flags, did everything with almost military precision – but far from the display being the charm offensive the authorities had hoped for, the rigid rules governing the cheerleaders’ existence soon leaked.
And like so many things about this country, it sends chills down the spine.
These women all have to be 1,6m-tall, in their twenties and drop-dead gorgeous – glossy haired, smooth-skinned and lithe-limbed.
They may have been allowed to leave their unbending homeland for the land of catchy K-pop music and dazzling technology but that doesn’t mean they can revel in any of it.
North Korean bodyguards follow their every move and ensure no one comes near them. They aren’t even permitted to go to the toilet on their own.
When they arrived at the Games they were accompanied by North Korean security guards wearing ushankas (Russian fur hats) and black winter coats.
Video footage shows the guards moving in as soon as the cheerleaders or athletes start talking to one another. The men are Kim’s informants and after the Games they’ll report back to the dictator on each cheerleader’s conduct.
THEIR ethereal beauty and almost robot- like dance moves have led to them being dubbed the “stars of the Olympic Games” by American TV show host Jimmy Kimmel, and they cause a stir wherever they go.
When they were allowed a beach outing, hundreds of eager fans and journalists showed up to see them – but the crowd was kept well away by a 1 000- man army of policemen, security guards and handlers.
Former North Korean cheerleader Han Seo-hee (35), who moved south in 2006, has shed light on what it’s like on the inside.
The women aren’t allowed to make eye contact or smile at other people and are encouraged to pack a handful of dirt in their suitcases so they won’t forget their home country, she says.
“[When we travelled as a team] cheerleaders wrapped a portrait of [Kim’s father] Kim Jong-il in a scarf and took it with them in their suitcase.”
Kimmel may have been charmed by the cheerleaders, who are supposed to show North Korea’s human side, but critics say this is yet another attempt by Kim (34) to distract world attention from the state of his country.
The New York Times wrote in December 2017 that 41% of North Koreans, about 10,5 million people, are undernourished. Others are locked up in concentration camps because they supposedly oppose the country’s strict communist laws.
Kim’s PR offensive started weeks ago when he sent pop singer Hyon Song-wol to South Korea to accompany delegates on Olympic site inspections. Hyon – former lead singer of the Moranbong Band, Kim’s favourite group and North Korea’s answer to the Spice Girls – is rumoured to be the dictator’s ex-lover.
Soon afterwards Kim cranked the
propaganda machine up a notch, dispatching his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong (30), to the South Korean presidential palace with a handwritten note of reconciliation in early February.
With the two countries having been locked in low-level conflict, she was the first member of the family dynasty in 65 years to set foot in South Korea – so her visit had the attention of the media.
Everything about her was analysed, from her hairstyle to her outfit. Even her freckles were a topic of discussion – rather than the fact that her name is on America’s blacklist of international human rights violators as a result of her censorship activities and role in spreading propaganda.
Necks craned and cameras flashed when the “Ivanka Trump of North Korea”, as she’s been called, showed up for the opening ceremony of the Games in Pyeongchang.
A video clip of her snubbing US vice president Mike Pence went viral.
Pence was reportedly less than impressed with the North Koreans, complaining they were trying to hijack the Winter Games with their sudden solidarity with the south.
But others understand why this was such a big deal. “To see a member of the Kim family in the flesh like that is so unusual for South Koreans,” explains Jean Lee, former North Korean bureau chief of Associated Press news agency.
“But it does also show how savvy the North Koreans are,” she adds. “They sent their prettiest women. Frankly when you go to North Korea, you have these guys who are drop-dead gorgeous. They’ve told me sometimes that their job is to seduce us, so that in turn we’re, like, the country and the people, they’re not that bad.”
OF NORTH Korea’s 22 participating athletes, only two formally qualified for the Games – figure-skating duo Ryom Tae-ok (19) and Kim Ju-sik (25). In a magnanimous gesture South Korean president Moon Jae-in invited the other 20 athletes to join the group in the hope that it would mend bridges between the two countries.
At the time of going to print the north hadn’t won a single medal – but was pinning its hopes on the skaters.
The pair were trained by Canadian Bruno Marcotte in Montreal, where his charges were in for a culture shock.
Marcotte says they asked him why people they saw on the streets weren’t working. They were also confused about the concept of skating as recreation rather than a vehicle for competition.
But North Korea’s star attraction, Kim’s cheerleaders, although not taking part in any sports, had spectators fascinated by their mere presence in the stands.
During their country’s ice hockey match against Switzerland the women, all dressed in red tracksuits and white sneakers, cheered on their team with eerily precise choreographed dance moves. They chanted traditional Korean songs with such gusto they all but drowned out the music being blasted from loudspeakers in the arena.
Even when it became obvious North Korea was heading for an 8-0 thrashing, the cheerleaders’ spirits remained high.
At times they wore identical masks – images of what many believe to be a young Kim Il-sung, founding father and first ruler of North Korea in 1948.
After the game, when spectators were leaving the stadium, the cheerleaders kept at it for another 15 minutes.
“Goodbye! Goodbye,” they sang merrily, waving at the eventually empty stands and singing as though their lives depended on it – which they might actually.
‘To see a member of the Kim family in the flesh is unusual for South Koreans’
SOURCES: GUARDIAN.COM, IOL.CO.ZA, CNN.COM, THE ATLANTIC. COM, NYDAILYNEWS.COM, QZ.COM, BBC.COM, CNBC.COM