SEOUL: Images of Olympic table tennis players from North Korea and South Korea taking a selfie together on the medal podium in Paris went viral in South Korea Wednesday, hailed as a rare show of cross-border unity.

Nuclear-armed North Korea declared the South its principal enemy earlier this year and tensions between the two countries are at one of their highest points in years. But after South Korea won bronze and North Korea silver in the mixed doubles behind China, South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon took a group photo after the medal ceremony.

North Korea’s Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, the South’s Shin Yu-bin and the victorious Chinese team Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha all beamed into Lim’s phone, a South Korean-made Samsung. “A selfie with both Koreas’ national flags and a Samsung phone,” said the widely read daily JongAng Ilbo. It was the first time North Korea had been on an Olympic podium since 2016, as they did not send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics because of the COVID pandemic.

“I congratulated them when they were introduced as Silver medallists,” Lim told Korean media after the award ceremony. South Korean broadcasters have repeatedly run videos of the selfie, with many commentators reflecting on the significance of a rare moment of unity. “This is the true spirit of the Olympics,” one commentator said. — AFP