All eyes are on the fierce and creepy chants of the North Korea cheer squad at the Winter Olympics (and they'll go to prison if they do anything wrong)

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February 11, 2018 4:07 PM

They'll go to prison if they put a foot wrong.

North Korea's official cheer squad is making its presence felt at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The cheerleaders watched Switzerland's ice hockey team demolish a unified all-Korea team 8-0, but that didn't get in the way of their fierce, highly choreographed singing and waving.

These are not like cheerleaders in any other kind of sport. Their songs and chants are bizarre, compared to anything else you'll hear from a crowd at a sports event. And they'll go to prison if they put a foot wrong.

It has to be seen and heard to be believed. Scroll on! ↓

The cheer squad arrived on February 7 wearing these stylish red and black outfits, with coordinated luggage.

They got a lot of attention for their relentless clapping at the hockey game.

They even cheered the zamboni.

Then they got their masks out ...

The masks are used in a song called "Whistle," which is apparently one of the North's most popular songs. (It's not clear who the person on the masks is.)

Cheer squad members are picked for their "natural" beauty and patriotism. Anyone who is suspected of disloyalty, or if their parents were defectors, is weeded out of the squad.

This is one of the most complicated sports chants you'll ever hear.

When they are not cheering, the squad is required to live on a massive ferry — the Mangyongbong-92 — so that they don't experience too much of the South. Or defect.

There are 230 women in the squad. North Korea's entire competing Olympic team is only about 24 athletes.

One reason they are so relentless in their cheering is that in 2006, about 21 members of the squad were sent to a prison camp because they talked about what they had seen in South Korea on a university games tour.

Source: Taipei Times.

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