Will exposure drive change in N Korea?

Gangneung, South Korea

WHEN North Korean figure skaters Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik took to the ice last week, cheerleaders chanting their names stowed the unified Korean flags that they had waved at other events at the Pyeongchang Olympics and whipped out their national flag.

After that unmistakable outburst of patriotic fervour, it was all the more incongruous when the pair began skating to a distinctly Western song: A Day in the Life by The Beatles, in a cover by Jeff Beck.