From sharing podium to hiding smartphones: NK athletes under watch in Nagoya

North Korea used the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games to showcase its prowess in strategic sports on the international stage while promoting national pride and unity at home.

But the North Korean athletes in their teens and 20s taking part in the Games have been suppressing their youthful instincts, confined by intensive self-criticism sessions and strict controls while in Japan.

According to this newspaper's reporting, the North Korean delegation has, during these Games, been found to hold self-criticism sessions frequently; completely block outside exposure and contact in and around competition venues; and effectively confine athletes to their accommodations outside competition hours.

At weightlifting venues, where self-criticism sessions were conducted openly despite the presence of outsiders, as well as at soccer fields, shooting ranges, gymnastics venues and canoe courses, North Korean athletes were isolated from the "exchange and harmony" promoted by the Games.

"Even when they stay alongside athletes from other countries at accommodations designated by the organizing committee, North Korean athletes are not allowed to go out or even train individually, and are completely cut off from the outside world," a Games official said. "People believed to be agents of the State Security Ministry, the country's intelligence agency, appear to have been stationed on the floors where the athletes are staying."

He said there had been no reports of North Korean athletes even taking walks around their accommodations, let alone visiting convenience stores.

Nevertheless, scenes of North Korean athletes caught between official restrictions and the interests of their peers were observed at various venues. At Nagoya Municipal Gymnasium on Aug. 24, where artistic gymnastics events were held, athletes sitting together in the stands looked much like any other teenagers and people in their 20s, huddling around a smartphone and passing around photos they had taken of themselves. But when a South Korean reporter approached or athletes from other countries greeted them, they quickly hid the phone and stiffened their expressions.

When South Korea's Yeo Seo-jeong, 24, took the podium after defeating North Korea's An Chang-ok to win gold in the women's vault, athletes from other countries applauded and celebrated her. The North Korean delegation, however, sat motionless without even clapping, in scenes that appeared to depart from the spirit of sportsmanship.

On Aug. 28, the North Korean delegation unexpectedly called a press conference at the Aichi Prefectural Shooting Range and pressed domestic and foreign journalists not to use the name "North Korea," but only its "official name," the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. While avoiding dialogue and exchanges, the delegation immediately protested matters it found objectionable.

As North Korea's closed-off attitude continued, signs of a desire to keep their distance have also emerged among South Korean athletes, who had hoped sports could serve as a catalyst for improving strained inter-Korean relations. Canoe athletes and officials who had formed close relationships with their North Korean counterparts after winning gold together as members of a unified Korean team at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games were reported to have exchanged little more than nods this time around.

"Basically, we're people too, so it's true that we feel bad about it," a sports official said. "Considering the circumstances North Korean athletes are in, there is also a tendency for us to avoid greeting them first."

Ryu Seung-min, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee and a former member of a unified inter-Korean table tennis team, also publicly expressed disappointment with North Korea's attitude at a media briefing at the Games, saying, "We don't try to force contact."

"The two sides have to interact, but we're not accustomed to one-sided interaction," he said. "We're busy taking care of our own athletes, and I don't think it's right for us to try to resolve strained relations at the same time." However, he left open the possibility that sports could help improve relations, saying, "If an atmosphere for inter-Korean dialogue is created, sports can play a role."

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.