PARIS, France — A moment of unity at the mixed doubles table tennis medal ceremony caught the attention of Olympics fans, as South Korean and North Korean competitors took selfies together with their newly-earned hardware.
China took gold, North Korea won silver and South Korea took bronze in the event. After receiving their medals, South Korea's Lim Jong-hoon snapped a smiling selfie of the group of medalists all together.
The picture was shared to the official Korean-language Olympics Instagram account and caught the attention of users on other social media platforms as the embodiment of the Olympic spirit.
This was North Korea's first medal of the Games. The reclusive nation also won the silver in the women’s synchronized 10-meter platform event Wednesday to capture the nation's first ever Olympic diving medal
North and South Korea have been bitterly divided since the end of World War II in 1945, and tensions have deepened in recent years as North Korea extends a provocative run of missile tests and South Korea expanding its military drills with the U.S.
Paris is North Korea's first Summer Olympics since 2016. The nation sat out Tokyo, citing concerns about COVID-19. There was already a snafu during the Opening Ceremony when announcers introduced South Korea's athletes as North Korea during the Parade of Nations. Olympic Games organizers said they “deeply apologize” for the error.
The two nations have occasionally competed in sports events as a unified team, including at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where the two countries marched together in the Opening Ceremony and played as one team in women's ice hockey.
