Article snippet: Kim Jong Un wants to turn his country into an international sports power — think East Germany in the 1970s and 80s. The North Korean leader is pouring resources into training and infrastructure, athletes are getting more recognition than ever and the country now even has an all-sports television channel, though it's not clear how many citizens are able to actually watch it. But while Kim's decision to send a team to Pyeongchang made a political splash, North Korea's athletes have battled for dead last in most of their competitions. It appears Kim's country has a lot of work to do. Though Kim hasn't gone out and cited it by name, the East German example is an enticing precedent for a status-hungry country like North Korea. While smaller in population — 16 million in 1990 for East Germany, 25 million for today's North Korea — East Germany was second only to the Soviet Union in the medal count at three summer games. It was the top medal winner at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games and runner-up in four others. North Korea, meanwhile, has participated in nine Winter Olympics, starting at Innsbruck in 1964. It has won only two medals: a silver and a bronze, in speedskating and short-track speedskating. But in a major policy statement in 2015, Kim vowed to improve that record. Published with the typically unwieldy title of "Let Us Usher in a New Golden Age of Building a Sports Power in the Revolutionary Spirit of Paektu," the statement called on the ruling party to h... Link to the full article to read more