"Amid pressing international conflicts, the Olympics is one of the most significant geopolitical events of the year."

Bach said he regarded North Korea's participation purely in sporting terms despite the rapid round of diplomacy between the two Koreas during the opening days of the Games. "This is about sport and this the IOC made very clear," Bach told AFP in an interview.

If one of the athletes wanted to defect, the time is right -- but that's not likely to happen, experts say. "One of the main reasons North Korean athletes don't defect is because of their families back in North Korea," Benjamin Young, a doctoral candidate ...

The media, like most all industries, can at times fall prey to groupthink. The latest example: the coverage of North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong (pictured above). Critics from the right and left promptly tore into the warped coverage.