02-22-2006, 03:25 PM
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The Great Leader
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: South Korea
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N.Korean Cheerleaders Banished to Camps
This is a very interesting story from the Chosun Ilbo.
Quote:
Women who caught South Korea's attention with their charm and cheerleading antics when they accompanied the North Korean athletes to the Busan Asian Games have ended up in North Korean detention camps.
Lee Myeong-ho, a former inmate of the Daeheung concentration camp in South Hamgyeong Province who recently escaped to China, said "21 beautiful women" were detained at the camp since the end of last year. "Later I found out that they were the cheerleading team that had gone to South Korea," he said.
Lee said since inmates are forbidden to talk to one another, he could not find out for sure what mistake they had made, but the rumor was that they had broken their promise to North Korean security services not to disclose what they had seen in South Korea.
Another defector explained the cheerleaders are picked among university students, propaganda squad members and music school students from good families. Before they were sent to South Korea, they had to sign a pledge bearing their 10 fingerprints that says if they are going to an enemy country -- Pyongyang epithet for the South -- they must fight as soldiers of leader Kim Jong-il and never talk about what they have seen or heard in South Korea once they return. They agree to accept punishment if they break the promise.
The defector said the Daeheung camp usually houses those convicted of economic crimes with a political dimension but has recently also become a camp for political dissidents. The camp, known as one of the worst in North Korea, is located in a mining area high in ragged mountains where there is hardly any vegetation.
North Korea first sent 270 cheerleaders to the Busan Asian Games in September 2002. For the 2003 Summer Universiad in Daegu it was 306, and at the 2005 Asian Athletics Championship in Incheon there were 124.
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I did some research on Google and found a japantoday article and pictures.
I also found a video here.
Quote:
UNIVERSITY GAMES
North Korean cheerleaders grab all the attention
Wednesday, August 27, 2003 at 07:00 EST
TAEGU, South Korea — When North Korea turned up at the World Student Games with a plane-load of cheerleaders, everybody knew they were here to show off. Clapping and singing in unison, the 300 uniformed cheerleaders, who outnumber the North Korean athletes three to one, have successfully held the media spotlight ever since.
But the politics of North Korean cheerleading is not to everybody's liking. The girls gave the cold shoulder to the Japanese and U.S. teams at the opening ceremony. They suddenly became quiet when the two delegations walked in front of them and resumed cheering immediately after they marched off.
The group's cheering reached a pinnacle when a joint procession of the two Koreas marched by, waving large unification flags for the Korean Peninsula.
Sunday's anti-North Korean demonstration — which erupted in violence when North Korean journalists tried to break it up — had been called to protest against pro-Pyongyang bias in the local press.
"Local news media are focusing on covering North Korean athletes and their supporters, isolating 170 other participating countries," said a statement released by the anti-Pyongyang protestors ahead of their action.
"This international sporting event is being utilized by North Korea for its political propaganda."
The women, who are bused to the games from remote accommodation outside the city every day, are kept under such strict security that even journalists assigned to cover them have become disgruntled.
On Saturday, photojournalists laid down their cameras outside a hotel where the cheerleaders were appearing to protest against the lack of access.
And not everyone is buying their message that North Korea is a vibrant, successful country.
"I think they're scary — they're too organized," said Lee Hyun Jung, 25, a volunteer at the Games, referring to the women's regimented routines.
North Korea has been working hard to keep the cheerleaders at the top of the media agenda. Numerous photo opportunities have been granted, and a fresh schedule of their movements is released to the press every day.
At stadiums they're unmissable, with their well-drilled routines eclipsing events on the field and their band drowning out all other support.
Kim Kun Woo, a 24-year-old student, said North Korea was taking advantage of a rare opportunity to play to the world stage.
"Some people don't like the cheerleaders because they're very strictly organized, with everyone doing everything at the same time," he said. "The point is to show the world that they've arrived, that they're a strong country."
But many people here would rather meet their near-neighbors than just sing along with them in the stadiums.
"It's a shame that although they're here we can't have any contact with them or say anything to them," said university student Guil Hye In, 21.
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Last edited by mike : 02-22-2006 at 03:28 PM.
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