BBC
3/11/2004
The former coach of North Korea’s national football team has defected to the South, according to the Yonhap news agency.
It reports that the South Korean intelligence service has had 56-year-old Mun Ki-nam in protective custody since he arrived in Seoul in January
He coached the North Korean team from 1999 to 2000.
An unnamed government official said Mr Mun escaped from the North in August last year, along with his wife and four children.
He reportedly took refuge at South Korea’s embassy in Beijing in mid-January.
Mr Mun was also involved in coaching a pan-Korean side which took part in a youth football championship in Portugal in 1991.
Another North Korean football coach, Yun Myong-chan, defected to the South in 1999.
