Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 August 9

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August 9

Rio 2016

Why is North Korea allowed in the Olympics?? I'm surprised they would even want to participate..("they" being the government/kim jong un) 199.19.248.107 (talk) 00:18, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

Olympic Charter Article 6: The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries.

North Korea's participation at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio is the nation's tenth appearance at the Olympics since its debut in 1972. AllBestFaith (talk) 00:35, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

Slightly, OT, I wonder if there is a list of athletes who have forfeited rather than play with an enemy athlete. I know several athletes this year forfeited which of course goes against everything the Olympics stand for. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 15:33, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

Kim Jong Un likes sports, so it's no surprise that he would have a team. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:40, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

See also North Korea at the Olympics.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:15, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

The Kuwait Olympic Committee is suspended by The International Olympic Committee due to government legislation that permits the state to interfere in elections of sporting organisations. North Korea is by far the most totalitarean dictatorship in the world (see e.g. Democracy Index). It's hard to imagine the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is allowed to do anything without permission from the government, but the members probably risk labor camp with their family for generations if they speak a word of government influence that could get North Korea suspended. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:23, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

It will be interesting to see how the North Korean authorities respond to this photo. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:00, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

They might say it proves that everything would be fine if the South would agree to reunite with the North. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:52, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

More commentary here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:58, 10 August 2016 (UTC)

Korean Unification Flag has some interesting tangents to this discussion, especially its use prior to about 2008. --Jayron32 19:02, 9 August 2016 (UTC)