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North Korean Soccer Team Faces Criticism Session

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Once again, this is why North Korea should be banned from FIFA play pending further investigation and monitoring of how it treats its players and coaches:

The team and coach Kim Jong Hun were summoned to a meeting at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on July 2, the U.S.-financed Radio Free Asia reported Monday. Sports Minister Pak Myong Chol was among some 400 government officials, athletes and others at the six-hour-long closed-door session, the report said. Team members were forced to reprimand their coach at the end of the gathering, the report said. [….]

The report cited two unidentified sources in North Korea and a Chinese businessman named Yu, described as knowledgeable about North Korea affairs. [AP]

Of course, these “criticism” sessions are a part of everyday life for all North Koreans, and hopefully, this doesn’t necessarily mean the players or the coach will suffer a darker fate. It just raises an obligation for FIFA not to look the other way.

5 Responses

  1. I’m sure the Swiss fat-cats will get right on that. As soon as they rebuild the South African school system.

  3. http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-shaming-of-the-north-korean-soccer-team-is-actually-a-really-big-story-2010-7

    Reports claim coach Kim Jong-Hun was made to work on a building site and expelled from the Workers’ Party of Korea. He was blamed for “betraying the trust of Kim Jong-Un”

    Pretty interesting stuff. I’m reading “Under the loving care of the fatherly leader” by Bradley Martin and I think basically anyone could lay out the entire sequence of events coming up dealing with the succession issue based on how it went down with Jong-il. Only this time I don’t know if Jong-un will be enlarging his father’s personality cult, and I really wonder how much true loyalty to the party exists today in the country.