ENGLAND’S FAILED footballers should count themselves lucky their ignominious World Cup exit was met with little more than a public mauling through the media.
Their North Korean counterparts, who lost all three of their group games, have been subjected to a six-hour excoriation for “betraying” the communist state’s ideological struggle, according to reports. There are even fears for the safety of coach Kim Jung-hun.
Early this month, the players were summoned in Pyongyang and subjected to six hours of criticism for their poor performances in South Africa, according to the US-based Radio Free Asia.
Only Jung Tae-se and An Yong-hak were spared this as they flew directly to Japan, their country of birth and where they play club football, according to an unnamed Chinese businessman the station cited as its source.
A sports commentator for the North’s state-run TV reportedly led the reprimands, South Korean media said. In Stalinist style, the players were “invited” to mount verbal attacks on Jung-hun.
The coach was reportedly accused of betraying leader Kim Jong-il’s son, Kim Jong-un, who is being lined up to take over from his ailing father as leader. North Korea watchers said the regime had hoped to attribute a success by the team to Kim Jong-un as it attempts to build support for a transfer of power.
Radio Free Asia quoted the source as saying he had heard that Kim Jung-hun had been sent to work on a building site.
After the team narrowly lost their opening match to Brazil, the regime decided to televise the second game against Portugal in what is believed to be the country’s first live sports broadcast. North Koreans then had to watch the team suffer a 7-0 thrashing.
The South Korean media claims the players got off lightly this time. An intelligence source told the Chosun Ilbothat in the past, North Korean athletes who let the nation down were sent to prison camps. – (Guardian service)