Open Sources: North Korean Soccer Still a Rolling Train Wreck

Defenders Song Jong Sun and Jong Pok Sim tested positive after North Korea’s first two group games and were suspended for Wednesday’s match against Colombia that ended in a 0-0 draw. Both teams were eliminated.

FIFA’s medical director Jiri Dvorak didn’t identify the substance involved. [AP]

Would it be an understatement to say that this year’s Womens’ World Cup hasn’t been a net positive for North Korea’s image? Here’s a satirical view that expresses it rather well. I’m still waiting for someone to explain why North Korea should be welcome in international sporting events at all, and this most recent spate of politically driven unsportsmanlike conduct won’t make that case any easier to make.

Despite that rather modest contribution from the E.U., the State Department still doesn’t seem inclined to give food aid to North Korea:

The U.S. government remains cautious about giving food to North Korea because it does not want to waste taxpayers’ money on aid that ends up on the tables of the “wrong people,” a State Department official said Wednesday.

“We’re continuing to evaluate the team’s report,” said department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, faced with a barrage of questions at a press briefing on why a decision on food assistance is being delayed, more than a month after Washington sent a delegation of officials and experts to assess the reported food crisis there. [….]

“It’s very much on our minds that we cannot waste American taxpayers’ dollars by providing aid that goes to the wrong people,” she said. [Yonhap]

In this political and budget climate, the administration probably wouldn’t dare. As difficult a decision as this is, given the flaws in the WFP’s assessment and monitoring, I think it’s the right one. For its part, North Korea has taken to begging directly from the press, which probably means just what I predicted — that the regime will use that refusal to win propaganda points from feeble-minded Jimmy Carter types, even while it squanders its lunch money on palaces, yachts, and luxury cars. If you’re scoring this, that’s a win-win for about 1% of the population of North Korea, and a lose-lose for the rest of them.

Oh, great!

Iran and North Korea are tightening their relations after a lull, defense sources have told Haaretz. Israeli defense officials are concerned about the development, saying it may reflect an expansion of North Korean aid to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. [….]

Israeli officials believe that Pyongyang is helping Iran develop its military nuclear program, saying that if Iran was only interested in nuclear energy for civilian purposes, Russia’s aid on the matter should have sufficed. [Haaretz]

As South Korea starts work on a new hanawon facility for North Korean refugees, BBC interviews a North Korean people smuggler.

Mrs Kwon says she makes $2,000-$3,000 ( £1,250- £1,875) a month, helping people escape. And she says that is nothing to be ashamed of.

“I’m not a drug-dealer. I’m not bad, I’m just bringing people out. I’m doing something the South Korean government can’t do. Yes, I make a profit from it, but it’s still saving lives,” she says.

Because of crackdowns by North Korean and China — a member in good standing of the U.N. Human Rights Council, by the way — the cost of fleeing from North Korea to South Korea has risen to $6,000, which still doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make it.

We’ve all seen conflicting reports about North Korean’s culpability for past and recent cyber attacks on U.S. and South Korean government web sites, but MacAfee seems to think they did it.