News Features

Photos: North Korea's surreal Mass Games

While everyone else watches the Olympics, Asia's weirdest sporting event transpires in the world's most secretive country

By MICHAEL GAO | September 8, 2008

080808_NK9
Photo by Michael Gao

Over months of training for the games, young gymnast Pak points out in A State Of Mind that "group power develops and individualism disappears completely.” However, a zoom camera lens — not permitted to be taken into North Korea without official approval, alongside mobile phones, laptop computers and non-approved books about the country and its government — reveals a variety of unique faces and mixed emotions as young participants struggle to remain synchronized and meet the exacting demands of the state.

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Review: Kimjongilia
There is very little new in N.C. Heikin's documentary attack on North Korea's endless dictatorship that hasn't been seen or heard before.
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