I scream! You scream! We all scream for Dear Leader!
GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) — They’re the early breakout hit of the Winter Olympics, a singing, clapping — and perfectly matching — troupe of red-clad North Korean cheerleaders who march to their own kind of drummer.
Watch them in action, and it’s hard to turn away for reasons that are somewhat hard to explain. See them steal the show like they did in the unified Korean hockey game Saturday night and it’s easy to understand why they outnumber North Korean athletes 10-1 at these games.
More than 200 of them sang and smiled all night long, carrying the show long after the game was decided. Then, for good measure, they kept on going for 15 minutes after it was over before finally marching off in two perfectly formed long lines.
Campy, yes. For many observers from outside North Korea, it’s kind of creepy, too.
The fact remains that behind the smiles they represent a totalitarian state that is trying to produce nuclear weapons as well as it produces synchronized spectacles. Their routines are for the glory of dictator Kim Jong Un or one of his predecessors, even if some of their songs have been modified so to not offend at the Olympics.
HT: Dian Cecht