Winter Olympics 2018: Could North Korea squad be sent to Kim’s labour camps?

A defector has sparked fears that both athletes and their coaches are in danger of being dragged off to jail, as they look to go home without snagging a single medal from the games in neighbouring South Korea.

A defector, named Kim Hyeong-soo warned they may not be seen competing again.

Speaking last year, he said: “You can see it in the eyes of the athletes because they’re not playing for their own pride or happiness; it’s more about fear.

“If they had a gold medal of course they would receive a huge benefit like a car, a new apartment in Pyongyang and extra rice.

“But if they have a bad result the athletes and the coach can actually be sent for hard labour for several months.”

North Korea has failed to out-perform the rest of the world, undoubtedly bruising the ego of their nuclear obsessed leader Kim Jong-Un.

The Pyongyang Government agreed to let their North Korean athletes compete in some joint sports with the South, but they have struggled to medal.

But propaganda mad officials could even make up stories abut why they lost, which will then be circulated to the population, defector Mr Hyeong-soo claimed.

Athletes who failed to bring home glory from the last games were reportedly kept in camps in Pyongyang before th games where they were trained by the nation’s best coaches.

Among those who have been hauled off for losing, include North Korea’s 1966 World Cup football squad, Mr Hyeong-soo said.

Dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister’s appearance at the opening ceremony appears to have distracted the South from a nuclear fall-out and souring tensions between the two nations, but back in the North, it was business as usual.

Claims an army chief was secretly executed are beginning to circulate while attention was focused on North Korea’s Pyeongchang squad.

Mr Hyeong-soo, who escaped North Korea in 2009, revealed the Rio squad would have faced months in the camps after disappointing in 2016.

The nation’s athletes were allegedly ordered to bring home five golds – but only snagged two silvers.

The pressure was revealed when Hyang Kim burst into floods of tears on the podium.

And those who competed in the South could be set for months of hard labour themselves.

Hundreds of cheerleaders and even one of the country’s most popular singers were sent to the Games which will close officially tomorrow, yet the events have not been covered by media in North Korea.