North Korea played their first world cup game in 44 years today and given that their opponents were the number one seed in the form of Brazil, they could be forgiving that their absence was being punished in some way. With bookmakers ranking them at 33 / 1 for the win, talk of a record goalscoring victory incoming and anyone who drew North Korea in their workplace sweepstakes cursed the gods when they took a closer look at the group they were in. However, the underdogs came out and matched the mighty Brazil, keeping it to 0-0 at half time and only losing by a single goal when the game finished 2-1. It didn’t take a trained tactical eye to be able to see their discipline, enthusiasm and effort. In defeat they earned the respect of the footballing world and their next opponents will not be taking them lightly as a result.
So why is it wrong to offer congratulations to the team in what should be one of the stories of the World Cup? Of course there is an answer to that question, just not one that is perhaps obviously explained. On the surface of it all, it is a simple football match on the biggest stage – a David vs Goliath encounter where the giant was victorious, yet not by much. However, football and politics are too closely entwined for one to be picked apart from the other. The people’s game is all too often seized upon by the powers that wish to control the people. In turn the game humanises those in such regimes, and the team’s fortunes quickly become an extension of national pride. With the spectre of Kim Jong Il hovering over the North Korean team their efforts are polluted even in the eyes of the most neutral of onlookers.
The fact that there were no North Korean journalists present during such a historic fixture tells its own story. What would they document? And what would be the point of documenting it when any account of the proceedings would have to be fed through state apparatus and altered until it met their approval. Well, you can churn out propaganda from home. Indeed the word coming out of North Korea is that the match would not be broadcast live, however a delayed showing would occur if North Korea won.
These stories were hotly denied by the national coach Kim Jon Hun who said of course the game would air live in their country. The truth is the Western media will likely never know either way. However, it’d be a lot easier if the coach simply would not be drawn on the many political based questions that were always going to come his way, instead of sounding like the hand of the Kim Jong Il regime was aggressively flicking switches located in a hollow in his back. His press conference ahead of the game was needlessly antagonistic of the media and did not portray either himself, his team or his country in a positive manner.
“There is no such country as North Korea” he chastised “Next question”. The party that rules it with an iron fist prefers the name Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. For many it is too ironic to be uttered. When one journalist asked if Kim Jong Il had a say in team selection a FIFA representative cut them off to ensure the press conference ended abruptly. Indeed there were strict guidelines regarding what would constitute a political question – which were strictly forbidden in this instance – and what wouldn’t. Mention of the dictator was very much off the menu.
Interestingly enough FIFA have been at the forefront of trying to soften the North Korean image. They issued statements completely contravening what every other on site press association had said about the North Koreans, who had been reported to be “insular” and “isolated” from everyone else in attendance. It was also reported during the press conference that the reason for the possible non-televising of the game live was not to do with the North, but because it was a South Korean broadcasting company that held the rights to the matches and would therefore not be transmitting the games into North Korea. A standard practice, even if it does come with political tensions close to an all-time high.
Still, it is interesting that people would try and make excuses for a coach that when last seen in Seoul stormed out of a post match meeting with the press slinging around wild accusations that the South Korean officials had poisoned his players. Clearly he is someone indoctrinated and very much behind the regime in North Korea. Portraying him in a positive light is extremely difficult, even though a Western press would much more happily write about someone forced into doing a tough job and doing it with much success, as opposed to someone who seems to be an embodiment of why the country is rightfully ostracised and criticised by the international community.
The North Korean side is not the first team with a tyrant in charge to compete at a World Cup, not by any means. However one thing that usually holds true is that the players are allowed to express a freedom on the pitch that the people can’t in their oppressive regimes. It is a display of defiance and reaffirmation that we are alike all over. Yet here with the North Korean team you have a group of people that seem not to want to use the World Cup as a means to draw back the veil on a notoriously secretive country, but rather begrudgingly interact with the other nations. Success shall be reported but only success… That in itself is a grotesque failure.