Rio 2016: North Korean athletes disappoint leader Kim Jong-un

Choe Ryong-hae, Vice Chairman of the North’s State Affairs Commission, center, leaves Riocentro-Pavilion 2 after North Korean weightlifter Om Yun-chol failed to win a gold medal in the men’s 56 kg event on Monday (KST). / Yonhap

By Park Jae-hyuk

When North Korean weightlifter Om Yun-chol failed to win a gold medal on Monday (KST), Choe Ryong-hae, a high-ranking North Korean official, stomped out of the Riocentro-Pavilion 2 venue.

According to reporters, Choe, Vice Chairman of the North’s State Affairs Commission, looked nervous. It could be that the North Korean delegation’s poor results would disappoint their supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, who is a sports enthusiast.

Kim reportedly ordered the delegation to win “five golds at least” before the athletes left for Rio de Janeiro.

But the North Koreans have not yet won gold, only two silvers in weightlifting.

Some South Korean netizens are concerned about the North Korean athletes’ safety after the Olympics. They often say the athletes will be sent to Aoji coal mine in North Hamgyong Province ― a notorious concentration camp ― due to their poor performance.

After the 2010 FIFA World Cup, U.K.-based tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that North Korean football coach Kim Jong-hun was sent to the mine because of the team’s performance.

There was another rumor that after the 1966 FIFA World Cup, North Korean football players were purged because they were knocked out of the quarterfinals against Portugal.

But North Korean defectors said such punishment does not occur. Joo Seong-ha, a North Korean defector-turned-journalist, admitted in his column that some of the footballers were purged, not because of their World Cup performance, but because of their political involvement.