Their two nations are famously divided. But ping-pong diplomacy is strong — and so it unfolded that after competing in table tennis at the Paris Olympics, athletes from North Korea and South Korea chatted and smiled as they posed for a selfie together. China’s team joined, rounding out the photo.
In a moment that has gone viral, the players had just received their medals for the mixed doubles competition in the South Paris Arena when one of the South Korean athletes produced a cellphone for a modern Olympic tradition: a group photo at the podium.
The image was posted to the Olympics' official Korean-language account; a video of the athletes posing and smiling also became a sensation.
North Korea’s duo of Kim Kum-yong and Ri Jong-sik had plenty to celebrate. The No. 16 seed earned silver after dealing upsets to highly ranked teams from Japan and Hong Kong and earning a spot in the final against top-ranked China, which won gold. This is North Korea’s first Olympics since Rio in 2016, having sat out the pandemic-delayed games in Tokyo.
The North Koreans never faced South Korea’s team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, who were relegated to the bronze medal match after losing to China’s formidable Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha on the opposite side of the bracket. It’s the first table tennis medal for South Korea since the London Games in 2012.
Then they all came together for a selfie, a document of friendly celebration at the podium.
The scene is being hailed as a very human moment that transcends borders and governments, an example of the Olympics’ power to unite people through sport.
And in the case of these two countries, it’s also a reminder that while the demilitarized zone divides the north and south, it did not sever centuries’ worth of Koreans’ shared family ties and culture.
For Lim, the Olympic medal brings a notable fringe benefit. Under South Korean law, he is granted an exemption from his mandatory 18-month military service — a term that was set to begin weeks after he returned from the Olympics, as The Korea Herald reports.
The athletes’ moment of selfie diplomacy came days after what had been an unfortunate start to the South Korean delegation’s visit to the Paris Olympics. During the opening ceremonies’ parade of athletes, an announcer mistakenly hailed them as representing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — a.k.a., North Korea.
The Olympics issued an apology after that gaffe.
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