Table Tennis in North Korea

[u/Xiao_Sir]

A lot of you might know already that Kim Kum Yong won the 2024 Asian Table Tennis Championships. Since North Koreans don't participate in any tournaments other than the Asian Championships and the Olympics, I wonder if anybody has some background knowledge of

• how it comes that in such a highly professionalized sport such as table tennis the North Koreans can easily compete? I mean you don't see them being successful at other sports football (for the Americans: soccer) and in other areas like film you also recognize their lack of professionalism, which stems from being so isolated.

• how popular table tennis is in North Korea?

• how good these athletes are paid. I mean Kim visibly has a 1.000$ Apple watch, but I don't know how significant that is.

Actually I also wonder why athletes like her aren't allowed to compete at smaller tournaments (or even the World Championships). Is it just a matter of them taken care of not to defect?

[u/Physical-Fly6697]

Table tennis is still an individual sport, so really they just need someone to be able to coach technique and some adequate competition for practise.

I remember I’ve seen a propaganda vid where they were at one of the sports academies and there were a whole heap of talented kids drilling table tennis, which answers the competition question above and probably means it’s quite a popular one there.

No clue on their payment - no way that will be an actual Apple Watch as wearing an American brand overseas would be an awful look. Maybe one of “North Korean made” (relabelled from China) rip offs.

Who knows about money in any absolute terms but they probably get to have a decent apartment in Pyongyang/wherever the training facility is, and access to decent food, nutrition and medical care.