The Hindu : Sport / Football : World Cup desire flares in N. Korea

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Monday, Jan 31, 2005

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World Cup desire flares in N. Korea

SEOUL, JAN. 30. They were World Cup soccer's mysterious comet. Blazing out of nowhere, the North Koreans stunned the world by reaching the quarterfinals in 1966 and then disappeared, seldom heard of again.

Now, four decades later, the North Korean squad says it's ready to charge out of the country's political isolation and storm World Cup soccer again. It has a powerful supporter: totalitarian leader Kim Jong Il, described by his propaganda-filled media as the master strategist for all sports.

``The government has paid deep attention to developing football in a perspective way,'' Ri Hi Yon, vice-director at the communist country's Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission, said in a rare interview on Saturday with KCNA, the North's official news agency.

Kim's government now awards players who distinguish themselves in international matches with ``a colossal sum of monetary prize, modern dwelling houses and luxurious cars,'' Ri said.

The strategy apparently works — with swift results.

The North Korean women's team are the Asian champions. Its youth squad has qualified for this year's world under-17 championship in Peru. Its national side, playing for the first time on the international stage since 1994, is now in the eight-team final round of Asian qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.

North Korea is in Group B with Iran, Bahrain and its historical nemesis, Japan. The top two will travel to the finals in Germany.

``Our footballers ... are in high spirits. I believe that our players will certainly win the match,'' Ri said, referring to the opening match against Japan on Feb. 9 at Japan's Saitama Prefecture.

North Korea brings political drama to the game, and Japan's return match in Pyongyang on June 8.

For years the two nations have been volleying barbs at each other — North Korea condemning and seeking compensation for Japan's brutal colonial rule in 1910-1945, and Japan demanding the repatriation of citizens kidnapped to the communist state.

``I used to tell the players that we should beat Japan no matter what,'' Yoon Myung Chan, who coached the North Korean team in the early 1990s before defecting to South Korea in 1999, told South Korean media last week.

Long before Japan and South Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup tournament, the North Korean were Asia's first football superstars. They routed Italy 1-0 to reach the quarterfinals at London in 1966 and took a three-goal lead before crumbling 5-3 to Portugal.

North Korea maintained a powerful presence in Asian soccer in the ensuing years, although it never made it to the World Cup finals again. It disappeared from international soccer in the mid-1990s when their country engaged in a tightrope confrontation with the United States over its nuclear weapons program.

South Korea's amazing success in reaching the semifinals in 2002 — thus surpassing North Korea's 36-year-old benchmark — stirred the North Korean leaders.

Ri said the impoverished North has launched a ``systematic football education'' and is training coaches with the help of FIFA, world soccer's governing body.

The number of players ``has steadily increased with public interest and enthusiasm in football ever growing. There are thousands of adult players and more than 100,000 juniors,'' he said.

Reflecting a growing interest, North Korea's Central TV on Friday introduced a foreign-made ``smart'' uniform fitted with electronic sensors that measure the player's heart beat and sweat and send the data to the coach.

Last week, a delegation from the Asian Football Confederation inspected and approved North Korea's facilities in Pyongyang, including a 100,000-seat stadium renovated with FIFA help, where the country will host Group B qualifying matches in March and June.

The matches will be broadcast live outside North Korea, affording the isolated country a unique chance to showcase its capital to visitors.

North Korea asked Japan for 5,000 tickets for the Feb. 9 match, while the Japanese Foreign Ministry urged caution among Japanese fans who want to travel to Pyongyang, where Japan has no diplomatic representation.

``Interest in the football of (North Korea) is growing at home and abroad with the approach of the final preliminaries of the Asian region for the 2006 World Cup,'' KCNA said. — AP

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