North Korea appeared on the soccer scoreboards in the 2010 World Cup for only the second time since the inception of the competition. They were placed in Group B with Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast. Their first match was played against Brazil, and although they lost 2-1, North Korea played much better than most people had expected. Their next game against Portugal, however, was a complete disaster for the team, and they were defeated 7-0. Already knocked out, they then lost to Ivory Coast, with the scoreboards showing 3-0. After a promising start, this left them languishing at the bottom of Group B.

There was a very small group of North Korean fans at the World Cup, but it turned out afterwards that they were in fact paid Chinese actors! North Korea denies this, saying that a small number of fans were given permission to travel to the World Cup. Apparently, the North Korean manager received advice on team tactics during the Group matches from the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il. According to the manager, this was achieved using a mobile phone that was invented by the leader himself, which was (somehow!) “not visible to the naked eye.”

When the North Korean team returned back home, Radio Free Asia reported that the players had to appear in front of the Sports Ministry where they were given a 6 hour long public shaming session.

Apparently, the players were forced to stand in front of 500 people in the Working People’s Palace of Culture in the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang. They were given heavy criticism for their failure to succeed in their “ideological struggle” to win the World Cup.

Each player was called out one by one to answer for his failings in South Africa. As part of the process, each player was also forced to criticize the head coach of the team.

Further to this, rumours have it that the coach has been forced to leave the all important Worker’s Party, which rules North Korea, and ordered to work as a labourer at a local construction site. Some reports have raised considerable doubt about the coach’s safety. The leader of the country considers that the embarrassing performance of the team at the World Cup is not less than a betrayal of the country and the country’s leader.

The only two players who avoided the inquisition were Jong Tae Se and An Yong Hak, as they were born in Japan, and they flew straight back to Japan after the World Cup.

This event shows how sport is still vulnerable to brutal regimes such as that in North Korea. The World Cup has turned into a Stalinist nightmare for the North Koreans, rather than the Hollywood ending that they would have hoped for.

For more information, go to: wikipedia.org