Kim Jong-un to send SPIES to Winter Olympics to stop athletes leaking North Korea secrets
NORTH Korean athletes will be accompanied by a team of minders who conduct constant surveillance and report back to Kim Jong-un’s regime, an Asian security expert has revealed ahead of the Winter Olympics next month.
Expert Chris Ogden's remarks come as North Korea and South Korea agreed to march together at the Winter Olympics under a "unified" Korea flag in a landmark bid to ease bitter relations.
Mr Ogden, a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews, told Daily Star Online: "They won't be directly segregated but there will be hugely chaperoned and monitored.
"They will have minders, I think, that will go with them and they will also instruct them about who to talk to and who not to talk to, and warn them about what will happen if they talk to the wrong people.
"I just think that when they got home, they would have to talk about what happened and why.
"I think they would just be under a lot of scrutiny, but I think they would just be aware of what the punishment would be before they went, which would stop them doing anything."
Mr Ogden added that he thinks North Korean athletes are unlikely to collude with the South or another rival nation.
The Winter Olympics will run until February 25, and North Korea is even planning to send 300 handpicked cheerleaders to cheer on its athletes.
Yesterday it was also reported that North Korea will send 22 athletes to compete in three sports and five disciplines at the games next month.
IOC President Thomas Bach said the North Koreans will take part in five sports disciplines, including a unified women’s hockey team with South Korea.
The unified women’s hockey team will mark the first time that the two Koreas will have joined together in Olympic events.
The IOC said they will play under the acronym "COR" and hear the song "Arirang" as a pre-game anthem.
The roster will include 12 players from the north and 23 from the south.
However, to maintain fairness for opponents, only 22 can suit up for each game. At least three must be North Korean.