And it seems that “in the hole” carries an entirely different meaning in North Korea than at Pebble Beach. Moon Ki-nam, a former national-level soccer coach who defected in 2004, told The Associated Press before the 2010 World Cup that players were rewarded with apartments if they succeeded internationally, but were sometimes sent to coal mines if they lost.

It is impossible to confirm such accusations. But it is clear that Kim’s cult of personality influenced sport as well as politics in North Korea. When Jong Song-ok, a North Korean runner, won the women’s marathon at the 1999 world track and field championships in Seville, Spain, she told reporters, “I imagined in my mind the image of our leader, and this inspired me.”

Until Kim died, Dick Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee from Montreal, said he was unfamiliar with the Dear Leader’s sporting talents, knowing only that he was an international man of mystery who loved movies, kidnapped the occasional South Korean actress and reportedly could change the weather with his mood.

Upon further reflection, Pound said, “I bet he shot 300 in skeet and was good in horseshoes, too.”

Kim was reported to be a huge basketball fan. Rick Santorum, the Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania senator, once said that North Korea posed less of a security threat than Iran because Kim “doesn’t want to die; he wants to watch N.B.A. basketball.”