Wednesday, October 02, 2002
Not only are North Korean athletes participating in the Asian Games, so are North Korean cheerleaders! (NYTimes free registration required)
Interaction between North and South Koreans at the games has been restricted. But sometimes curiosity trumps caution:
At event after event in these regional Olympic-style games, bused in along with the weight lifters, the soccer team or table-tennis players, there have been scores of what appear to be carefully selected official cheerleaders for the North, as well a the hired fans from the South.
Wearing all-white outfits, with white caps, and clapping, chanting, blowing their horns and even smiling in seemingly perfect synchronization, these citizens of the tightly controlled Communist state rank among the most orderly fans in sports.
Interaction between North and South Koreans at the games has been restricted. But sometimes curiosity trumps caution:
At a softball game between Japan and North Korea on Monday, access to the white-clad cheerleaders, who sat 10-rows deep along the third-base line, was strictly limited. When a North Korean woman was overheard to express surprise over a South Korean fan's dyed red hair, wondering aloud if it was a wig, there was a rare chance for spontaneous interaction.
"Most women dye their hair here," shouted a South Korean photographer. "Really?" came the response, in wonderment. The South Korean began to explain that many men dye their hair here, too. An amazed look hung on the cheerleader's face. For a moment, she was too befuddled to respond, and it is just as well, because a grim-faced male member of her delegation appeared out of nowhere, apparently to tell her that fraternizing was forbidden.
