At first, it seemed like a joke. Because the name of the South Korean city where the Olympics will occur in February—Pyeongchang—sounds so much like the North Korean capital—Pyongyang—many joked that scores of spectators would accidentally turn up in North Korea expecting the Olympics, only to be bitterly disappointed.

But, little by little, the Olympics really are becoming North Korea’s show, regardless of which city they'll actually occur in.

It began with the announcement last week that the two Koreas would field one joint women’s ice hockey team—on one level, an understandable decision, given the thousands of years of shared Korean history, but also a propaganda coup for a human-rights-abusing, nuclear-proliferating regime north of the 38 th parallel.

That decision has already worked to North Korea’s benefit. NBC News dispatched Lester Holt to the country to report on its “preparations” for the Olympics. This has the effect of making it seem like just another country. He also visited a “modern” North Korean ski resort, which would be like visiting Auschwitz in 1944 but only filming Rudolf Höss’s residence. (Holt at least admitted that North Korea’s foreign affairs ministry “crafted much of the itinerary of where we can go and advising us on what they don't frankly want us to shoot.”)

Now North Korea is doing what it does best—keeping the world guessing, and embarrassing the South Korean government in the process. The Joonang Ilbo, a leading South Korean daily, expressed frustration on Monday that, “ A delegation of artists arrived in South Korea on Sunday to check their performance venues in Seoul and Gangneung ahead of the Games. … However, the lead-up to the agreement showed many problems. North Korea abruptly canceled the delegation’s trip to Seoul only to reverse that decision on Sunday. Rather than expressing regret over Pyongyang’s aberrant behavior, our government asked the press to restrain from negative reports about it. If the North really delayed the delegation’s visit to tame our government and media, it has already achieved some results. “

It also appears that a North Korean propaganda music group, which sings songs that exult the appalling dictatorship there, will be allowed to perform at the Olympics. (The lead singer of a North Korean girl band, which is often described as having been “hand picked by Kim Jong-un”—that means they’re his slaves—was in the South scouting locations for performances this week.) This suggests that an Olympics that should be a celebration of South Korea’s titanic achievements—it rose from utter destruction and poverty and became one of the world’s leading economic powerhouses and a robust democracy to boot—will play host to propagandists who fete a regime whose aim is to destroy it. Regardless of their athletic performance at the games, the North Koreans have already won a victory or two at this Olympics.