Paris Olympics 2024: North, South Korean athletes go viral for sharing selfie after medal ceremony
Paris Olympics 2024: North-South Korean athletes go viral for sharing selfie after the medal ceremony
The Paris Olympics 2024 has witnessed plenty of controversies right from the opening week, with the organisers trying hard to get out of hot waters. From expelling journalists to wrongly announcing country names, headlines have been made for all the wrong reasons. However, Tuesday (July 30) saw a different side of the coin when archinternational rivals North Korea and South Korea showed a glimpse of rare unity at the Paris Games.
North, South Korea come together on podium
On Tuesday, after South Korea won bronze and North Korea the silver in the mixed doubles of table tennis behind China, South Korea's Lim Jong-hoon took a group photo after the medal ceremony. The photograph featured North Korea's Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, the South's Shin Yu-bin and the victorious Chinese team Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha all beamed into Lim's phone, a South Korean-made Samsung.
The rare occasion of both countries sharing the podium surprised many international fans, considering both nations are arch enemies and have poor diplomatic relations. The strained relationship goes back to the 1950s, when the two nations went to war.
Nuclear-armed North Korea declared the South its principal enemy earlier this year, and tensions between the two countries are at one of their highest points in years.
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Recently, North Korea sent trash balloons to South Korean territory, highlighting the bad blood between the nations.
However, Tuesday saw a rare scene where athletes from the rival nations were seen sharing the podium. The medal for North Korea was also its first since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, having opted to pull out of the Tokyo Games in 2021 due to COVID-19.
"I congratulated them when they were introduced as silver medallists," Lim told Korean media after the award ceremony.
(With inputs from agencies)
