Medal Speeches ‘Nearly Identical’

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/speeches-08032012173520.html

The acceptance speeches by An Gum Ae, a judoka who won North Korea’s first gold medal, Om Yun Chol, a North Korean weightlifter who won gold setting a world record, and Kim Un Guk, another North Korean weightlifting world record setter, were almost identical.

“[I’m] really happy that I was able to give our leader, Kim Jong Un, joy with my gold medal,” said An when collecting her gold.

“Thanks to our Dear Leader’s love and support, I was able to win the gold medal,” said Om Yun Chol when receiving his hardware.

Kim Un Guk provided, perhaps, a tad more insight on how he was able to enter the record books.

“Our supreme Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un, encouraged us, the athletes, and is waiting for the results of the games,” he said.

“That’s the secret of setting the world record.”

Rim Jong Sim, who took gold in weightlifting on Aug. 1, simply expressed her happiness in pleasing Kim, but several foreign reporters at the ceremony burst into laughter before they even heard the translation, once they recognized the “Dear Leader’s” name in her speech.

Journalists have stopped interviewing the North Koreans, according to one British reporter from Reuters news agency who said that no matter what questions the athletes were asked, the answers were “always the same.”