Paris Olympics winner may be penalised for smiling with rivals from China, South Korea

In a bizarre turn of events, North Korean athletes Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, who won silver medals for their country at the recent Paris Olympics, are undergoing a process of 'ideological evaluation', according to a report in The Telegraph.

The process is said to last a month and is aimed at 'cleansing' the team of 'contamination'. The review process would reportedly include going through every aspect of the athletes' behaviour at the Olympics, and if they are found to have behaved in a way that contradicts Kim Jong Un's regime, they could face disciplinary action.

However, it's not clear from the report whether the end result could be severe punishments for the athletes or just a simple warning and an order to do some self-reflection.

According to the Telegraph, the two athletes came under government scrutiny after they were seen 'grinning' alongside foreign competitors, including South Korea's Lim Jong-hoon. A selfie taken from Lim's phone with the smiling North Korean and Chinese contingent had gone viral on social media and was widely seen as an example of sportsmanship overcoming cross-border hostilities.

“If they interacted with athletes from other countries, they must strongly reflect on their actions to avoid potential political or administrative punishment,” the Telegraph reported a source as saying.

Notably, North Korean athletes had reportedly been given ‘special instructions’ to not interact with South Korean or other foreign athletes in Paris and warned about the repercussions of not following this order.

However, it hasn't always been this way between North and South Korea at the Olympics. The marquee event has provided an opportunity to reflect on the state of diplomacy between the two nations in the past. For example, during a relatively warm period of relations between the two countries at the 2018 Winter Olympics, athletes from both countries marched together at the opening ceremony and even fielded a unified women's ice hockey team.