- A North Korean defector living in South Korea told the BBC what it was like being forced to be part of a cheerleading group organized by the North Korean government.
- The group’s members underwent “psychological training” and were supposed to honor North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
- The cheerleaders garnered massive media attention after performing at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, but critics accused outlets of normalizing North Korea.
A former member of North Korea’s so-called “Army of Beauties” cheerleading squad that performed on the sidelines at the Pyeongchang Olympics said the group is used as a form of propaganda.
Han Seo-hee, a North Korean defector living in South Korea, told the BBC that she and the other members of the group were trained “to have this basic mindset that we were on the frontline of promoting the Juche ideology,” a state-sponsored belief that the North Korean regime uses to promote its socialist and nationalist agenda.
“We were separated for different kinds of psychological training,” Han said. “We were told we should not be surprised or shocked by another world. In particular, the training’s focus was that we shouldn’t forget our home country, not even for a minute. And we also shouldn’t forget that we were there to honor General Kim [Jong Un].”
“We were not just there to cheer, but we were told to go into the heart of the enemy,” Han added.
You can watch the interview below:
The US press has received a lot of blowback for what critics see as its chipper coverage of North Korea’s Olympic delegation. Business Insider reported that a range of news organizations, from CNN to Reuters, were criticized for their “surprisingly cheery” reporting on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister — and propaganda minister — Kim Yo Jong, who attended the Games. Fox News, The Washington Post, and BBC also received criticism for comparing Kim to President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump.
Normalization may have been the goal for the North Korean government, which has tortured, killed, and imprisoned millions over the years and continues to threaten the Korean peninsula and the US with nuclear war.
Members of the “Army of Beauties” are actually college students who have been chosen by the government to represent the country abroad, Suki Kim, a Korean-American author, told Business Insider in a recent interview.
“It’s almost like a beauty contest, except it’s not a beauty contest because you’ve been forced to take this position,” Kim said. “And you don’t have an option as a North Korean citizen. So when we’re seeing these young women cheering, they’re not like cheerleaders that you see. They didn’t come there on their own will. They’ve been ordered by their regime.”
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