North Korea's Olympic Committee has reportedly forbidden its athletes from receiving complimentary Galaxy S7 handsets from official Rio 2016 sponsor Samsung Electronics. The South Korean smartphone manufacturer provided 12,500 special edition Galaxy S7 handsets to Olympic participants, which include over 11,200 athletes from 206 nations and two independent teams, as part of its marketing campaign.
Sources told Radio Free Asia that officials from North Korea's Olympic Committee prohibited the athletes from carrying the phones as they participated in the event's opening ceremony. According to a Samsung spokesperson, a North Korean team manager confiscated the phones, fearing the gadgets would provide athletes the means to access the Samsung exhibition in Rio, where South Korean electronic products would clearly be on display.
North Korea's actions in the Rio Olympics are not without precedent. The socialist state has had a known history of limiting its athletes' contact with the outside world. In fact, during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, swimmer Wang Ok Gyong told sports reporter John Canzano that North Korean athletes were banned from mixing with other athletes and from seeing places of interest.
The Washington Post views the country's strict measures as an attempt to prevent defections. While there have been no known defectors from North Korea during any of the Olympic games, defection is deemed to be a relatively common occurrence at international sports events. For instance, during the 2012 Olympic games in London, several athletes from Cameroon and Sudan attempted to obtain temporary residence in Britain. In 2008, a handful of soccer players from Cuba defected in Florida during an Olympic qualifier. While in 1999, the Romanian junior world wrestling team decided to seek refuge in Australia.
Despite North Korea's seemingly tight control over its athletes' actions, however, the country has always been an active participant in the Olympic games. It has competed in every Summer Olympics since 1972, only with the exception of the 1984 games in Los Angeles and the 1988 games in Seoul. Its delegates have also performed exceptionally well: North Korea has won at every game it's attended, and now has 49 medals under its belt.