|
Hwang Young-cho, the marathon gold medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, was my first sporting hero and has left me with an indelible memory. I saw him running on TV in China, while living a precarious refugee life there after escaping from North Korea. It gave me courage. I was so filled with emotion at seeing my first South Korean athlete win the race that I almost wept. At the same time, I was indignant at the North Korean regime: even allowing that it was in confrontation with the South, it seemed wrong that it had never shown the public any South Korean athletes in action.
Sixteen years have elapsed, but the North Korean authorities still refuse to show Olympic events live; they only make brief reports on medal-winning North Korean athletes. Though 10 years have passed since we started the Sunshine Policy, most North Koreans don't know what the taegukgi, our national flag, looks like.
The Olympiad has passed its mid-point in Beijing, the capital of North Korea's neighbor and ally China; but the atmosphere cannot be felt in the North at all. Indeed, China¡¯s development is emerging as the greatest threat to the North Korean regime -- so much so that some say that the 38th parallel has moved to the North Korea-China border.
Most North Korean refugees in the South, watching the Olympic games live for the first time, are startled. They say they didn¡¯t realize the events were so gripping. And they feel national pride in the achievements of South Korean athletes.
The North Korean regime does not show the Olympics and other major international matches because of South Korea, which has emerged as a major sporting power, and other ¡°hostile¡± countries. The more information about the South is suppressed, however, the more North Koreans are curious about medals won by South Korean athletes. The 1988 Seoul Olympics was a historic event that aroused interest among North Koreans. Pyongyang blew up a Korean Airlines passenger plane over Burma en route to Seoul in November 1987 in an attempt to block Seoul Olympics fever from spreading to the North. The North also attempted to distract public attention from the Seoul Olympics by preparing to host the 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang.
The regime publicized the event as a major world festival, but few youngsters were deceived. North Korean youngsters were more excited about the news that South Korea was hosting the Olympics, an event even advanced countries find difficult to pull off.
News that South Korea stood fourth in the overall performance in the Seoul Olympics was spread among North Koreans by young people who monitored the radio: the games turned many young North Koreans into political offenders when they told their friends about the Seoul Olympics news, and they were interrogated by the Ministry of Public Security and the State Security Department. Since the North Korean economy collapsed in the latter half of the 1990s, few North Korean athletes won gold medals, and that reduced opportunities for North Koreans to see Olympic news on TV.
The North Korean athlete Kye Sun-hui is well known even among South Koreans. Had North Koreans seen Choi Min-ho and Park Tae-hwan win gold at the Beijing Olympics, they would have applauded them as much as South Koreans did Kye.
Spare a thought for those North Koreans who cannot feel the Olympic fever but nevertheless cheer our athletes in their hearts. We should not forget that there are 23 million North Koreans behind every South Korean gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics, who cheer them in the hearts, just as South Koreans cheer North Korean athletes.
The column was contributed by North Korean defector and Chosun Ilbo journalist Kang Chol-hwan.
|
