Yonhap
Kim Hyun
6/9/2006
North Korea, which has shunned Western entertainment, has given in to World Cup fever and started efforts to satiate people in the country who yearn to watch the imminent tournament.
Pyongyang is seeking to broadcast World Cup matches live across the country with Seoul’s support. North Korea’s state-run broadcaster, Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS), sent a letter to the Korean Broadcasting Commission of South Korea last month asking it to share its World Cup footage with the North that could not pay for the broadcast rights. The request came as the Koreas were politically at odds over testing of newly connected inter-Korean railways.
The South Korean broadcasting commission is in talks with FIFA as part of efforts to assist with Pyongyang’s request, said a public affairs official in the broadcasting commission requesting anonymity because a contract had not yet been signed.
When the deal is reached early next week with FIFA and its Switzerland-based business representative Infront Sports & Media, the North will be able to provide its people with a live broadcasts of the games via satellite from Seoul, the commission official said.
North Korea has candidly expressed on its television programs its people’s desire to watch the football tournament. A KCBS announcer said, “This year’s World Cup competition will really be worth seeing.”
Pyongyang has published four kinds of stamps in commemoration of the tournament, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday. The stamps depict football players from different countries who distinguished themselves in previous tournaments, it said.
North Koreans in and around Pyongyang who watched the 2002 World Cup games, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, via free satellite distribution with the South’s help, were thrilled by the South’s unexpected progress, said Kim Jong-chol, a reporter with the Minju Chosun, the North’s Cabinet newspaper.
“The South’s advance to the semifinals in 2002 boosted the morale of the Korean people,” Kim told a Yonhap News Agency reporter.
North Korea failed to advance to the World Cup in the regional qualifier after winning one game and losing five.
After their team lost 2-0 to Iran, angry North Korean players offended the referee and fans threw bottles onto the pitch. As punishment, they had to play Japan in Bangkok without spectators.
The communist country is revving up efforts to gain global status in the next World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010. It has strengthened international exchanges to sharpen the team and established football training grounds with artificial grass supplied by FIFA earlier this year.
