The World Cup is an event that brings people all over the world together. It promotes hope, community and good sportsmanship – from players and fans. It is the most watched sporting event on the planet, heavily scrutinized from all angles for any hint of trouble, which could mean disaster for an entire country.
With all this in mind, one would not be remiss to wonder how North Korea got in. This is a country that seemingly works hard at actually making itself unlikeable. This is a country that has turned its back on the rest of the world – except for when it wants to shoot missiles. It seems to have absolutely no interest in promoting hope, community or good sportsmanship.
In fact, AP reporter Jean Lee described how uninterested the team, known as Chollina, seems to be:
“All meals, prepared by a cook flown in from Pyongyang, are closed to outsiders. And no chance for the players to stray from the group. Most training sessions at Maphulong Stadium… have been closed, and coach Kim Jong Hun made only Japanese-born star Jong Tae Se available Wednesday for a news conference required by FIFA, soccer’s governing body.”
All the secrecy may be strategic – after all, one of the only things North Korea has going for it at this point is the fact that no one knows its players. Only three have played outside of North Korea, in the relatively low-key J-League, Japan’s professional soccer league.
Using this to their advantage, the Koreans won a hard-fought draw against Greece in a World Cup warm-up game, something that served as a wake-up call to casual observers.
And there are plenty of those. With the increased coverage of the Cup by ESPN and the booming popularity of soccer in the United States, interest in the tournament is at an all-time high. Many of those who would not otherwise be drawn to the action stay for the stories. The tensions surrounding the North Korean squad are among the leading headlines, especially with the recent troubles between North and South Korea.
Professor Ling Arenson from DePaul’s History department gave some insight into North Korea’s possible purpose during the games.
“It is a good opportunity for the world to get to know this isolated state and to have at least limited contact with its athletes,” Arenson said. “Likewise, North Korea gets a chance to communicate whatever message it wants to air out to the world through this popular event.”
Hopefully that message will be played out on the field instead of politically. With nations such as South Korea and the United States possibly waiting on the other side of the group stage, the will be plenty of drama to go around. Despite these issues, Arenson did highlight the importance of North Korea’s participation in this event.
Arenson did not think that banning the country from such an event would be a way for the rest of the world to send a message.
“Excluding North Korea from a cultural event will not help alleviate the tensions,” Arenson said. “It will only further isolate and harden its position. Penalty and deterrence can be imposed in economic and political realms through such international bodies as the UN.”
But that does not mean they should expect to have lots of fans.
Susan Kim, 21, a junior and a native-born South Korean, indicated that North Korea made their own bed.
“They shoot missiles, they bully the rest of the world, they threaten their own people; how can we be expected to cheer for them?” she said.
When asked about their chances for making it out of the dreaded Group of Death – which includes soccer powerhouses Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal – she remarked that karma may have something to do with it.
“It’s not that I don’t feel bad for them, making it this far only to probably lose,” she said. “But you kind of have to think they had it coming.”
Despite the lack of fans in Chicago, there are a few pockets of Chollina fans. In Japan, the North Korean Football Association of Japan caters to the nearly half million Koreans who choose to root for North Korea, selling shirts, scarves and even group tours to South Africa.
Yoree Koh, a Wall Street Journal blogger, reports that fans are paying as much as $6,900 to see the North Koreans against Brazil in South Africa, which may be one of the only games they will get to play this tournament.
Regardless of the results, we might learn something from this country’s tiny step into the global community.
“They just want to get their feet wet,” Arenson said. “I don’t think they have high expectations at this point.”
Whether they do or do not, this marks the first time since 1966 that North Korea has earned a place at the world’s table, and you can be sure that people all over the planet will be watching.