So what was the overall perception from within DPRK on their participation at the 2010 World Cup? Mun Si Song, the DPRK Desk Officer at the Asian Football Confederation, broke down his nation’s campaign in fairly straightforward terms (http://tinyurl.com/3abs4zz). The game against Brazil demonstrated DPRK’s, “fighting spirit and dedication,” said Mun, but those virtues were sorely lacking during their second half performance against Portugal. “[The DPRK] lost their balance and collapsed defensively. They made mistake after mistake and you can’t argue with the one-sided score-line,” Mun admitted. Mun finally assessed that the 3-0 reversal to the Ivory Coast was no disgrace and, “the players can hold their heads high because they lost with pride.” 

 

Pak Du Ik, scorer of the DPRK’s winning goal against Italy in 1966, anticipated that the squad would receive a warm welcome back in Pyongyang. “Officials and crowds of people will go to the airport to welcome them. This is because taking part itself is a success,” he told APTN. I would have loved to have gone to the airport on Tuesday to have witnessed the squad’s homecoming, but, alas, other commitments kept me away. And as I didn’t see anything on state television, nor read any local newspaper articles on the matter, I can only go by what was reported by the Chosun Shilbo, a pro-North Korean Japanese newspaper. The players were apparently down in the dumps on alighting the aircraft, but, “regained their smiles after being welcomed by their families,” the Shilbo stated. The report also claimed that, “officials comforted the players by saying ´work appreciated´,” and that there was a widely-held belief that, “the players will reap good results in the future if they use the confidence and experience gained from the advance to the World Cup.”

 

My Korean friends remained gutted for a day or two after the defeat by Portugal, and there was considerably less interest in the match with Ivory Coast as there was nothing for their side to play for by that stage. Crashing out in the first round wasn’t what anyone in Pyongyang wanted, but there was an acceptance that the team has a lot to learn at this level and a hope that they would compete at the next World Cup in Brazil where they might make amends. 

 

In contrast to the relative positivity coming out of Pyongyang regarding the team’s performance, concerns have been voiced about the players’ fates in the aftermath of their three successive defeats in South Africa. Mun Ki-Nam, a former football coach who defected from DPRK six years ago, was quoted as saying: “The players and coach are rewarded with huge houses when they win. But they have to atone for losing by being sent to work in the coal mines.” Another defector, Kang Chol Hwan, in his memoirs, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, told of how he had met one of the 1966 World Cup team members in a prison camp – the entire squad had allegedly been incarcerated after it was rumoured that they had been enjoying themselves rather too much in England (their behaviour was deemed “bourgeois, reactionary, corrupted by imperialism and bad ideas.”). 

 

Does a spell in the gulag beckon for the current DPRK squad? Will they be sent off to the mines? It is impossible to say for certain, but I’m doubtful that such punishments would come to pass, and there are three indicators that bring me to that conclusion.

 

Firstly, the noises coming out of North Korea suggest that they want to build upon the success of qualifying for the World Cup. Mun Si Song went on the record as saying that the team who took part in the World Cup, “should not be condemned. The only thing I need to admit is the team was lacking experience and international exposure.” Of course, the DPRK can only gain that experience and international exposure by granting greater freedom to their players. Their clubs would benefit from competing in continental competition (to the best of my knowledge, no DPRK side has participated in the Asian equivalent of the Champions League since 1992, and I’m not sure if they are in self-imposed exile or if the AFC have barred them from the tournament), and more of their players should be permitted to move abroad. It seems unlikely that DPRK club sides will be gracing the Asian Champions Cup with their presence anytime soon, but there have been a few recent instances of DPRK born-and-bred players moving overseas, the most recent being the national team’s right wing-back, Cha Jong Hyok, who has just transferred to Swiss second tier side FC Wil. There he will join compatriot Kim Kuk Jin who has been plying his trade in Switzerland (initially with Concordia Basel) for a couple of seasons.   It may not be La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga, but the fact that the DPRK are allowing their players greater overseas exposure is to be welcomed (even if they are accompanied by ‘interpreters’ at all times). If a player who competed in the World Cup is being allowed to move abroad, it would seem to suggest that he won’t have to face a stint of hard labour in his homeland, and it might be fair to conclude that his team-mates will also be free of such a fate.

 

Another reason why the players are likely to be allowed to concentrate on their football in the immediate future is that they have an important competition in which to participate early next year. Courtesy of their victory in February’s Asian Challenge Cup, the DPRK will take part in the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, their first appearance in that competition since 1992. They will be hoping to make a good impression, but they find themselves drawn in a tough group alongside Iraq (the current holders of the trophy), Iran and UAE. To make it to the knock-out stage, they will need to be at their best, so my guess is that the squad for that tournament will not differ markedly from the one which represented the nation at the World Cup. 

 

Finally, and following on from the above, DPRK welcomes any opportunity to get their hands on some hard currency. For simply qualifying for the World Cup, the DPR Korea Football Association received a cool $8million (though how much of this is actually filtered back into the sport is anyone’s guess). A good run in the Asian Cup will probably net them a decent income also. So why risk losing out on this money by fielding an inexperienced side, and then perpetuating the problem by banishing them to the mines if things don’t go well?  For these reasons, I can’t imagine that the players will be locked away or be forced into an unwanted change of career anytime soon.

 

As with most aspects of life in DPRK, it’s difficult to predict exactly what will happen next. Unfortunately, it’s probably too much to hope that sporting success in DPRK will be used for anything other than internal propaganda, or that football can play its part in opening the country up to outside influences. But as they say here, pop-shi-da.