A photo from the Paris 2024 Games went viral online, capturing a rare moment: North and South Korean table tennis players taking a selfie together.
Many were surprised by the image, given that the two countries were technically still at war, with the Korean War ending in 1953 without a peace treaty.
South Korea’s bronze medalist Lim Jonghoon marked the occasion by taking a selfie with his North Korean counterparts on the podium after their mixed table tennis doubles competition, celebrating a unique moment of unity amidst ongoing tensions.
Joining him were his teammate Shin Yubin, North Korea’s silver medalists Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, and China’s gold medalists Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha. Many viewed this moment as a rare display of cross-border harmony.
North and South Korea often form unified teams for international sporting events. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, both countries marched together in the opening ceremony and competed as a unified team in women’s ice hockey.
Their last unified team appearance was at the Tokyo 2020 Games, after which sporting relations cooled once more.
This year’s Olympics have seen additional drama. Recently, organizers issued an apology to South Korea for a “human error” during the opening ceremony, where they incorrectly introduced South Korea’s 143 athletes as North Koreans.
During the boat cruise down the River Seine, announcements in French and English mistakenly identified them as from the “People’s Democratic Republic of Korea,” which is the wrong name for North Korea. The official name of North Korea is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, while South Korea is officially known as the Republic of Korea.
