North Korean Refugee/citizen in official WCA competition?

[Davian]

So someone I know saw that there was a North Korean citizen in an Korean comp.

Registrations for Prime Cubing Day Seoul 2024 | World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

www.worldcubeassociation.org

Does anyone know about this person? It could be official that they escaped north korea, or maybe its fake? SInce its impossible to escape north korea.

Also tell me if this is in the wrong forum section.

 

[Averageof12]

View attachment 32326

So someone I know saw that there was a North Korean citizen in an Korean comp.

Registrations for Prime Cubing Day Seoul 2024 | World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

www.worldcubeassociation.org

Does anyone know about this person? It could be official that they escaped north korea, or maybe its fake? SInce its impossible to escape north korea.

Also tell me if this is in the wrong forum section.

If this is right, thats CRAZY. But who would WANTto be trackeddown by North Korea?

 

[Kami-Kun]

SInce its impossible to escape north korea.

Multiple people have escaped North Korea. It's gotten harder to do so over the years but people still escape every year.

 

[Clock_Enthusiast]

This is a tricky one. North Korean defectors AUTOMATICALLY have South Korean citizenship, as South Korea claims the entire Korean Peninsula. South Korea does not recognize past North Korean citizenship, and it is next to impossible to ever safely and legally return to North Korea. By defecting, you essentially forfeit your North Korean citizenship, as such associated documents would not be recognized in South Korea (assuming South Korea is your new place of residence). I don't know how the WCA would deal with this though, as nationality is self-reported and confirmed through ID. If someone uses their North Korean passport to represent North Korea, I don't think the WCA could deny them based upon South Korean laws. However, I also don't see why someone who defected would voluntarily choose to represent North Korea (though this is my personal perspective, and cannot fully reflect the experiences of people from the Korean Peninsula or defectors of the DPRK). They also may have defected, but aren't aware yet of how to present their status--that process is extremely complex and has so many factors to consider.

 

[Cubist-Guitar]

Imagine fleeing the strongest dictatorship in the world, sacrificing everything you knew to hang around a bunch of nerds and plastic pieces. Wouldn’t be me.

In all seriousness, this is really incredible.

 

[An Animating Cuber]

Either someone trolling or a one of those propaganda things North Korea will sometimes do like how they sometimes send kids to math competitions.

 

[Kivvi]

View attachment 32326

So someone I know saw that there was a North Korean citizen in an Korean comp.

Registrations for Prime Cubing Day Seoul 2024 | World Cube Association

The World Cube Association governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'. The most famous of these puzzles is the Rubik's Cube, invented by professor Rubik from Hungary. A selection of these puzzles are chosen as...

www.worldcubeassociation.org

Does anyone know about this person? It could be official that they escaped north korea, or maybe its fake? SInce its impossible to escape north korea.

Also tell me if this is in the wrong forum section.

I bet he escaped North Korea out of sheer willpower to join a speedcubing competition.




But seriously, this is really impressive

 

[ProStar]

Bros bouta get the most unbreakable NRs

 

[terukaaz]

I think that someone who escaped North Korea for his life will never ever choose to represent that country. I think it might be the propaganda stuff because he only compete in 3x3? (idk).

 

[FenTheGoat]

Does anyone know of a database for all North Korean defectors recorded? I checked Wikipedia, they only have one for notable defectors. It’d make sense if there wasn’t, but for rare circumstances like this, it would be nice. I’ll be doing more digging

Everything after this point is research I’ve done

So here’s some of my theories as of the moment.
1. Part of rich North Korean family that’s allowed to leave the country
2. Refugee
3. Refugee using an alias (I can’t confirm this because I’m not Korean, but this is just the conclusion I’ve made from looking up the name) It seems to be a very common Korean name. Maybe, so he doesn’t get caught by the North Korean government, he’s using an alias to avoid being recapture, tortured, and then killed. But this is just speculation
4. Lying

All of them have their own flaws, like
1. If you’re a rich North Korean family, why not hold a non-wca competition within the country (it may be very small because of the lack of western goods allowed in the country) and also, why not just say you’re from South Korea?
2. Most likely, every reason I can think of that would debunk this point could be rationalized
3. Why not just say you’re South Korean at that point too?
4. Also likely, it would make sense.

I’d like to add that it seems that North Koreans get heavily discriminated upon in South Korea from what I’ve read, but idk for sure. As stated earlier, im not Korean.

 

[Jorian Meeuse]

Does anyone know of a database for all North Korean defectors recorded? I checked Wikipedia, they only have one for notable defectors. It’d make sense if there wasn’t, but for rare circumstances like this, it would be nice. I’ll be doing more digging

Everything after this point is research I’ve done

So here’s some of my theories as of the moment.
1. Part of rich North Korean family that’s allowed to leave the country
2. Refugee
3. Refugee using an alias (I can’t confirm this because I’m not Korean, but this is just the conclusion I’ve made from looking up the name) It seems to be a very common Korean name. Maybe, so he doesn’t get caught by the North Korean government, he’s using an alias to avoid being recapture, tortured, and then killed. But this is just speculation
4. Lying

All of them have their own flaws, like
1. If you’re a rich North Korean family, why not hold a non-wca competition within the country (it may be very small because of the lack of western goods allowed in the country) and also, why not just say you’re from South Korea?
2. Most likely, every reason I can think of that would debunk this point could be rationalized
3. Why not just say you’re South Korean at that point too?
4. Also likely, it would make sense.

I’d like to add that it seems that North Koreans get heavily discriminated upon in South Korea from what I’ve read, but idk for sure. As stated earlier, im not Korean.

Or (I promise this is very likely) they found this post and Kim didn't want his country on the list:

This is the first NR for San Marino in the history of the WCA. This made me curious how many countries still do not have an NR, and the answer was more than I expected.

Spoiler: Countries with no NRs

Antigua and Barbuda
Barbados
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Djibouti
Dominica
Equatorial Guinea
Eswatini
Micronesia
Gabon
The Gambia
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kiribati
Liberia
Mali
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Nauru
Niger
North Korea
Palau
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Sao Tome and Principe
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
South Sudan
Timor-Leste
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Vatican City

Here's hoping for more NRs from new countries like this

 

[ProStar]

Or (I promise this is very likely) they found this post and Kim didn't want his country on the list:

Still waiting for the Pope to compete

 

[An Animating Cuber]

Still waiting for the Pope to compete

 

[FenTheGoat]

Still waiting for the Pope to compete

I GOTCHU GUYS

 

[ProStar]

I already tried that

 

[qwr]

Btw, NK sending people to competitions is not as far-fetched as you think.

They score extremely well in the International Math Olympiad, beating most countries not named US, China, or South Korea: https://www.imo-official.org/country_team_r.aspx?code=PRK
Also in ICPC, they ranked ahead of Beijing, Tsinghua, Standford, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge https://www.northkoreatech.org/2019/05/04/kim-chaek-university-icpc-2019/
A lot of their hackers and tech people are suspected to be trained in China, which also dominates these kinds of competitions.
They have more Olympic medals than India or Indonesia. Sorry Indians you need to step up your Olympics games

 

[FenTheGoat]

Btw, NK sending people to competitions is not as far-fetched as you think.

They score extremely well in the International Math Olympiad, beating most countries not named US, China, or South Korea: https://www.imo-official.org/country_team_r.aspx?code=PRK
Also in ICPC, they ranked ahead of Beijing, Tsinghua, Standford, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge https://www.northkoreatech.org/2019/05/04/kim-chaek-university-icpc-2019/
A lot of their hackers and tech people are suspected to be trained in China, which also dominates these kinds of competitions.
They have more Olympic medals than India or Indonesia. Sorry Indians you need to step up your Olympics games

But… like… why? I understand math Olympiad stuff and hacking, that has real world use, but cubing? It just feels off. Unless it’s some sort of cold-war chess style thing

 

[qwr]

But… like… why? I understand math Olympiad stuff and hacking, that has real world use, but cubing? It just feels off. Unless it’s some sort of cold-war chess style thing

It's proof of the eternal victory of Kim Il-Sungism and Juche

 

[FenTheGoat]

It's proof of the eternal victory of Kim Il-Sungism and Juche

I guess that makes sense. If this person gets a 3s average, we know what part of the coin this guy lands on

 

[cubenerd74]

I saw that in a Korean cubing community, apparently it's a mistake and he's trying to fix it