Posted on: Friday, June 7, 2002
Letting in the outside world, North Korea shows World Cup games
By Christopher Torchia
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Koreans are getting more than their usual television fare of grainy, decades-old footage of their late authoritarian ruler, or Soviet films that glorify the socialist way.
They're watching World Cup soccer games, some of them played across the sealed, fortified border with South Korea.
The delayed, edited broadcasts are highly unusual because North Korea is one of the world's most closed societies, and information is tightly controlled. Its leaders are believed to be concerned that images of wealth in the neighboring South could encourage dissent among its impoverished people.
"North Korea seems to be responding to its people's interest in the World Cup, which is just as high as in other countries," Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korean affairs professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said Thursday.
Also Thursday, soccer officials in South Korea said the North planned to send its national soccer team for a friendly match on Sept. 8 in Seoul — the first such game since 1990. North Korea has not confirmed the match, however.
The television broadcasts suggest North Korea is willing to open the door a little more to foreign influences, just as it is encouraging carefully selected groups of tourists to visit the North for a huge festival now underway. Also, foreign journalists who have traveled there recently say they have been allowed more freedom to move around, although restrictions remain very tight.
Since the world's biggest sporting event began May 31, North Korea has shown clips of the games between France and Senegal, Cameroon and Ireland, Denmark and Uruguay, Paraguay and South Africa, Argentina and Nigeria, and England and Sweden.
The broadcasts on state-run television have given North Koreans a rare glimpse of South Korea, which is co-hosting the World Cup with Japan and won its first-ever game at the championship with a victory Tuesday over Poland.
The broadcasts, monitored by South Korean authorities, show advertising billboards in the brand-new stadiums as well as signs of host cities such as Seoul and Busan.
"I've never seen or heard of broadcasts of the World Cup (in North Korea) before. North Korea's principle has been to broadcast only international events in which it participates," said Kim Hyong-deok, a 28-year-old North Korean who fled his country in 1994. He is now a secretary to a governing party legislator in South Korea.
It was unclear whether the communist North, the South's battlefield foe a half-century ago, planned to broadcast parts of South Korea's win, or the U.S. victory over heavily favored Portugal on Wednesday. The North routinely accuses Washington, the South's Korean War ally, of plotting an invasion.
Last month, the English-language Pyongyang Times accused the United States of deploying more spy planes and other military hardware in South Korea under the guise of guaranteeing security for the World Cup. Security is heavy for the event because of fears of terrorist attacks.
Relations between Washington and Pyongyang, which do not have diplomatic ties, deteriorated further this year when President Bush said North Korea was part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq. South Korean is struggling to revive a reconciliation process with its neighbor.
FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, said there was no World Cup broadcasting rights holder in North Korea and transmission of game footage was illegal. But the German company responsible for marketing and sales of broadcast rights on behalf of FIFA said the situation in North Korea was "unique."
"We hope that the North Korean viewers enjoy the football and experience first hand how the World Cup brings the world together," said Dr. Alexander Liegl, managing director of KirchMedia's Sports Group.
The company said it had no plans to take action because of its limited access to North Korea, and did not speculate on how the North got the footage.
The broadcasts are also unusual because they might draw local attention away from a festival now underway in North Korea. The Arirang Festival, which includes performances by thousands of gymnasts, dancers and others, pays tribute to Kim Il Sung, the national founder and president who died in 1994, as well as his son and successor, Kim Jong Il.
In 1966, North Korea beat Italy to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The North did not try to qualify for this year's tournament, and did not take up South Korea's offer for it to host a couple of games.
