A Night Out With North Korea’s Cheerleaders: Matching Snowsuits, Military Discipline and Chaperoned Bathroom Trips
- 6 years ago
A Night Out With North Korea’s Cheerleaders: Matching Snowsuits, Military Discipline and Chaperoned Bathroom Trips
All the while, the North Koreans, staring straight ahead, never stopped chanting, “We are one!”
During a stoppage later on in the game, when four scantily clad South Korean cheerleaders gyrated to the song “Girlfriend,” by Avril Lavigne, the North Koreans swayed, clapped
and sang their own song in a completely different beat.
“They look very pretty,” said Hyun Myeong-Hwa, 58, of Cheongju, South Korea, who filmed the women as
they took their seats 30 minutes before the joint Korean Olympic women’s hockey team played Sweden.
TV Chosun, a national television station, was criticized for a report — on the possibility
that the North Koreans were watching South Korean television — that relied on footage shot through the living room window of the cheerleaders’ condo units.
The presence here of the all-female squad of cheerleaders — 229 strong, as part of the larger North Korean delegation at the Olympics
— has been politically charged, provoking divided reactions among spectators at the Games and those watching from afar.
“They are basically unflappable.”
Town said cheerleaders in North Korea were groomed much like athletes
and other entertainers, who are seen as symbols of national strength and discipline, and came from elite families in Pyongyang.
On Monday, the squad rode for an hour and a half in eight buses — accompanied by six police cars — from a remote
resort at the Inje Speedium, a racetrack complex in Inje County, along the foothills of Mount Sorak.
All the while, the North Koreans, staring straight ahead, never stopped chanting, “We are one!”
During a stoppage later on in the game, when four scantily clad South Korean cheerleaders gyrated to the song “Girlfriend,” by Avril Lavigne, the North Koreans swayed, clapped
and sang their own song in a completely different beat.
“They look very pretty,” said Hyun Myeong-Hwa, 58, of Cheongju, South Korea, who filmed the women as
they took their seats 30 minutes before the joint Korean Olympic women’s hockey team played Sweden.
TV Chosun, a national television station, was criticized for a report — on the possibility
that the North Koreans were watching South Korean television — that relied on footage shot through the living room window of the cheerleaders’ condo units.
The presence here of the all-female squad of cheerleaders — 229 strong, as part of the larger North Korean delegation at the Olympics
— has been politically charged, provoking divided reactions among spectators at the Games and those watching from afar.
“They are basically unflappable.”
Town said cheerleaders in North Korea were groomed much like athletes
and other entertainers, who are seen as symbols of national strength and discipline, and came from elite families in Pyongyang.
On Monday, the squad rode for an hour and a half in eight buses — accompanied by six police cars — from a remote
resort at the Inje Speedium, a racetrack complex in Inje County, along the foothills of Mount Sorak.