As mainstream outlets such as USA Today, ABC News, and the New York Times pumped out a steady stream of propaganda about North Korea's cheerleaders at the Winter Olympics "stealing the spotlight" and wearing "matching snowsuits," a more sinister story of sexual abuse and exploitation was apparently not worth the MSM's investigative resources.

A North Korean defector says that members of the North Korean Olympic cheerleading squad are being forced into sexual slavery by the country's top politicians, reports the New Straits Times.

“North Korea’s art troupe came here and performed with dances and songs, and it might seem like a fancy show on the outside. However, they also have to go to parties and provide sexual services, that sort of pain also follows," said former military musician Lee So-yeon, 42. She now heads the New Korea Women's Union - a group which helps defectors adjust to life in South Korea.

"They go to the central Politburo party’s events, and have to sleep with the people there, even if they don’t want it. Those sorts of human-rights infringements take place, where women have to follow what they are told to do with their bodies.”

“The women there, when they attend, they have to undress. They’re asked to undress, like objects. That’s the physical pain they have to go through.”

Bloomberg also spoke with Kim Hyung-soo, 54, who defected to South Korea in 2009 with his son - a North Korean national league skier. Kim said that all of the North Korean coaches and atheletes are "slaves" of Kim Jong-un, though he did not mention sexual abuse.

“The cheerleaders, too,” he said. “They select people who are unlikely to defect, and people with loyal backgrounds. This factor is crucial from a very early stage.”

The cheerleaders are hand picked by the North Korean regime based on a stringent set of criteria, according to defector An Chan-il who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies.

“They must be over 163 centimetres tall and come from good families,” An said. “Those who play an instrument are from a band and others are mostly students at the elite Kim Il-sung University.”

That said, Mike Pence was a bit standoffish with Kim Jong-Un's sister, the head of propaganda for North Korea - which in retrospect may have been more newsworthy than North Korea's forced sexual slavery of it's national cheerleading squad.