[EVENT] Bringing North Korea to the World

##Bringing North Korea to the World

January 2, 2028 - Secretary and Deputy Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, Hyon Song-wol

###Soft Power Makes a Strong and Prosperous Nation!

Since the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party Korea, the Respected Comrade of Kim Jong-un has begun to pivot away from his policy of Nuclear-first Songun, and instead embraced a policy of regime survivability and combat readiness. Not only has the Korean People's Army not conducted any new missile tests, it has also not produced any new nuclear weapons, nor conducted any nuclear tests. The Korean People's Army has withdrawn from its combat-involved deployments in Russia and Yemen, and only maintains a presence in Eritrea. The Central Committee has moved to reallocate excess funding away from the nuclear program as it winds down, and focus on other efforts. The Ministry of Culture and the Propaganda and Agitation Department were some of the main beneficiaries of this pot of money, that Secretary Hyon Song-wol has used to invest in film and television media, but also start significant foreign programs to train North Korean dancers, musicians, artists, filmographies, fashion designers, actors, among others.. NK watchers have surmised that North Korea is investing significant capital in creating a North Korean cultural renaissance, in a call back to the 1960s and 1970s.

###North Korea at the Olympic and Asian Games

In the years to come, with funding secured from formerly military portfolios, the Ministry of Culture has planned to go on a blitz to bolster North Korea's presence at international sporting events to raise national prestige, national morale, and global awareness for the D.P.R.K. and its athletes. The Ministry of Culture is interested in significantly increasing its' support of the North Korean Olympic Committee so that it can field a significantly larger delegation. The North Korean Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Culture have agreed to support promising athletes in areas the D.P.R.K. has historically did well, such as wrestling, boxing, diving, table tennis, and weightlifting, but focus a majority of its efforts on bolstering North Korean competitiveness in team sports at these events, as a symbol of strength of collectivist culture, and of-course, the Juche collectivist system.

The Masikryong and Pyongyang National Training Centers

A significant chunk of funding will go to develop the Masikryong and Pyongyang National Training Centers. The Masikryong Ski Resort near Wonsan will be turned into the Masikryong National Training Center for winter sports, and will be renovated and expanded to accommodate a gymnasium, and multiple ice rinks. In Pyongyang, for summer sports, the Pyongyang National Training Center will be built up around the existing Rungrado 1st of May Stadium. It will also have a gymnasium, Olympic-sized swimming pools, weight rooms, fighting rings, badminton courts, diving facilities- and of course football will be played inside the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium. The rowing facility will be built right on the Taedong river, which is right next to the Stadium.

Summer Sports

Although North Korea has historically done well in wrestling, boxing, diving, table tennis, and weightlifting, the North Korean Olympic Committee has decided to expand its summer delegation to include additional entrants into those sports. However, a majority of its focus will transition to creating athletes and internationally-competitive teams in the following "summer" sports. Firstly, we have the new "focus" team sports: Football, Gymnastics (which is also individual), Artistic Swimming, Volleyball, Water Polo, Rowing, and Badminton (also individual). Moreover, the following individual sports will be supported further, or become new sports of entry for the North Korean Olympic Committee: taekwondo, weightlifting, diving, table tennis, judo, boxing, swimming. The North Korean intends to completely fill out this summer roster and participate in all of these sports at both the Asian Games and the Summer Olympic Games in all future events- including those held in South Korea and the United States. North Korea will also not compete under the "United Korea" flag. For the summer games, North Korea is planning for its gymnastics and rowing team to be the pride of the delegation.

Winter Sports

As with the Summer, the North Korean Olympic Committee has also committed itself to attending all future Winter Olympic events so long as it has at least one qualifying athlete, although it intends to have a larger delegation with athletes and teams competing in a variety of events. Of the sports of focus here for the Olympic Committee, North Korea is going to spend significant effort in fielding a very formidable ice hockey team, bobsleigh team, and figure skating (Pair, Ice Dancing, and Team Event) as the major team-sports for Winter. For the individual sports, the NKOC is focusing on developing talented athletes in figure skating, alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, and ski jump. For the winter games, North Korea is planning on focusing most of its efforts on making a Soviet-tier hockey team.