Football Dispatch

Summer Football Special
09 July 2007
Kim Kum-II dreams of the day when his country hosts an international football match. Of leading his teammates onto the field amidst color and sound, thunder and lightning – an earthquake of atmosphere which lingers in myth to the outside world. Of welcoming the likes of Brazil, Argentina, and England to the great city. Of bringing glory to himself, his family, and his country.

North Korea plays its home fixtures in Singapore, Macau, or anywhere else which is both close to home and far from the news. Pity, because Kim Kum-II’s city would offer plenty to the wide eyes of Ronaldo, Messi, or Beckham.

The skyline of Pyongyang is impressive – if not predictably excessive and ambitious. The Juche Tower offers a spectacular view of Kim II-Sung Square from the opposite side of the Taedong River. And it is not at all uncommon to watch teams of yachts and schooners trolling the shoreline. Further west, the Kumgang mountains encircle the outskirts of the city – creating a sense of enclosure and intimacy.

The Juche Tower, itself, strikes an imposing figure on the eastern shore. Standing 150-metres high, it is constantly illuminated; and a 45-tonne torch blazes red atop the palisade. While much of the city endures frequent outages of electricity, the tower is a constant beacon of radiance in the darkest nights.

Pyongyang’s Arch of Triumph, modeled after the Parisian structure of the same name, is the biggest of its kind in the world. Commanding the foot of Moron Hill, the Arch commemorates Kim II-Sung’s successful resistance of Japanese overlordship between 1925 and 1945. At 60-metres high and 50-metres wide, it contains numerous rooms, balustrades, and observation decks. Four vaulted gateways, each 27-metres high, adorn the sides of the Arch – two on each side.

The city’s most striking landmark, however, is the magnificent Ryuguyang Hotel. Located in the Potong-gong district of Pyongyang, it rises 330-metres, or 105-stories, and contains over 3.9-million square-feet of ground-space. Atop the concrete pyramid are seven revolving restaurants which swirl above the capital. Construction of the hotel began in 1987 before grinding to a standstill five years later. Sources outside the country speculated that the regime had exhausted all available funding for the project. As it stands, empty and cavernous, the hotel cost approximately $750-million – or 2% of the national Gross Domestic Product.

Should North Korea ever host an international football match, it would be played at the Rungrado May Day Stadium. Situated on Rungra Island after which it is named, the stadium can accommodate 150,000-spectators and provides 2.2-million square-feet of ground-space. Sixteen arches encircle the grounds – each stretching 60-metres in height. Not only is the Rungrado twice the size of Seoul’s Olympic Stadium, it is the largest sports stadium in the world.

Still, Kim Kum-II has never played football in his country’s national stadium. North Korea’s top league, the DPR Korea League, does not have a member club in the Rungrado. The last Pyongyang side to win a domestic title, Pyongyang City Sports Group, plays its home fixtures in the 70,000-seat capacity Kim Il-sung Stadium.

It is somehow incredible, then, that North Korea’s football teams have begun to draw notice on the international stage. In September, 2006, its women’s team won the U-20 World Cup in Russia – embarrassing China 5-0 in the final. Just two months later, its men’s team won the Asian Youth Championship in India – defeating Japan on penalty-kicks in the decisive match.

Much of that squad, including captain Kim Kum-II, has arrived in Canada for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. They are grouped in one of the competition’s most difficult brackets, Group-E – with Argentina, Czech Republic, and Panama. Along with manager Jo Tong-Sop, the team has been mostly intact since the 2005 U-17 World Cup in Peru. They will open the tournament on Saturday, 30 June against Panama and will play all three group-stage fixtures at Ottawa’s Frank Clair Stadium.

Kim heads a midfield corps which is, undoubtedly, North Korea’s primary strength. Ri Chol-Myong is a steely contributor; and Choe Myong-Ho, known as the Korean Ronaldo, will be out to make a name for himself on the international stage as well. Kim, by virtue of his four goals at the Asian Youth Championship, was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. His side posted 6-wins in 8-matches, scored 16-goals, and conceded just 4. Their appearance at this U-20 World Cup will be their first since 1991.

Still, success for North Korea will not come easily in Canada – nor through the efforts of a single player.
“I told my players to play with a single mind,” stated manager Jo Tong-Sop on arriving in Canada. “Individual brilliance won’t help if you don’t work as a team.”

In truth, the arrival of a North Korean sports team in the West presents several, eerie parallels to that of former Soviet hockey clubs. When Vsevolod Bobrov, Vladislav Tretiak, and Vladimir Kharlamov landed in Montreal in 1972, they became the first, real-life faces of an isolated regime to curious, Western eyes. Similarly, the arrivals of Jo Tong-Sop, Kim Kum-II, and Choe Myong-Ho will provide many North Americans, South Americans, and Europeans a first, personal encounter with North Korea.

Due to its political climate, North Korea has been frozen-out out of participation in international football competitions for most of the last half-century. Between 1930 and the present, the regime has entered the qualification process for just four World Cups and five Asian Championships. In 2004, it was suspended by the Asian Football Federation. FIFA has been somewhat more accommodating. International football’s governing body has never prevented North Korea from entering a competition. Incredibly, FIFA has traditionally welcomed isolated nations such as North Korea, the Soviet Union, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq with far more hospitality than its political counterparts such as the United Nations.

Consider, for example, that North Korea was first admitted into the United Nations on 17 September 1991. At the time, it had already exercised full participation in FIFA for over forty years. Additionally, the UN recognizes 192 member nations. FIFA, on the other hand, maintains a membership of 208 participating national associations. Founded in 1904, it pre-dates the UN by over a half-century. Furthermore, as FIFA came into being a decade before the First World War, it maintains nothing of the post-war rivalries which are so prevalent in the UN Security Council. Germany, India, Japan, and Brazil would surely attest to that notion.

The presence of North Korea at a major, international sporting event such as the U-20 World Cup is a boon to the values of tolerance, openness, and inclusiveness. On the football pitch, they are not an axis of evil or a rogue state. They are not evangelists of dictatorial doctrine or backward philosophy. They are participants among the nations – citizens of a global community. They may even leave their mark.

At their lone appearance in a World Cup finals, in 1966, North Korea rocked Ayresome Park by defeating Italy 1-0 and qualifying for the knockout stages. In the quarter-finals, they went 3-0 up on Portugal before the great Eusebio struck a quad en-route to a 5-3 defeat. Then they fell off the map in every sense of the term.

“North Korea is a regime arming with missles and weapons of mass destruction while starving its citizens,” warned President George W. Bush in his famous address to Congress on 29 January 2002. Maybe; or maybe not. What matters is that they have come to Canada to be included. To be welcomed by the world and treated as an equal among the nations. They have come; and they will be as curious as everyone else. They will take-in all that they see and bring it back to their families and communities. They will talk about those few, summer weeks in Ottawa. Who knows, Kim Kum-II may even lead his country onto the field at Rungrado, one day.