North Korean Economy Watch

BBC
9/23/2002

A plane carrying 173 athletes and officials from North Korea has touched down in the South Korean city of Busan ahead of the Asian Games, due to begin on Sunday.

The group is the first part of the largest delegation ever sent by the Communist North to the South.

It is the first time that Northern athletes have attended an international sporting event in the South since the peninsula’s division in 1945.

In another first, the North Korean flag was publicly flown on Southern soil when it was hoisted at the Games village.

But the athletes and officials leaving the plane at the airport were met by the blue and white neutral flag of a united Korean peninsula.

“Thanks for welcoming us,” said one of the delegates as they headed off to the athletes’ village without giving a news conference.

Warming up

Altogether, nearly 700 northerners are due to arrive for the Games.

A second plane carrying 152 people is due to arrive on Friday while a ferry will bring 355 officials and supporters into the port city on Saturday.

Of the 419 gold medals up for grabs at the Games, the North is expected to bag about 10, having won seven at the last Asian Games, held in Thailand in 1998.

With the two Korean states still technically at war, the North has until now shunned all big sporting events hosted by its rival, including the 1986 Asian Games, the 1988 Olympic Games and the 2002 World Cup football finals.

But recent weeks have seen a flurry of both diplomatic and sporting activity as work on a cross-border railway began, families were reunited and the two states held a friendly football match in Seoul.

BBC
9/5/2002

North Korea’s football team has arrived in South Korea for the first match between the two countries for nearly 10 years.

They will play on Saturday in Seoul’s main stadium – scene of South Korea’s unexpected success in the recent World Cup, when the team reached the semi-finals.

The two teams last met in 1993, when the South won 3-0. The new game comes at a time of tentative moves by the two countries to improve their relations.

In the past two weeks, North Korea has held talks at various levels with the South, Russia and Japan as Pyongyang makes new attempts to widen its links with the outside world.

Symbolic ceremonies

Hours before the North Koreans footballers arrived in the South, there were simultaneous torch-lighting ceremonies in the two countries.

These were held in a symbolic gesture of reconciliation marking North Korea’s participation in the Asian Games, to be held in the southern town of Busan later this month.

In South Korea, seven women dressed as angels lit a torch using sunlight reflected by a mirror at the summit of the country’s highest peak, Halla Mountain, on the southernmost island of Juju.

The North Koreans lit their torch on top of Mount Paekdu, the most sacred place of the country and the birthplace of their leader, Kim Jong-il.

The two torches will unite on the border on Saturday, and then a single torch will travel around South Korea to Busan.

BBC
7/9/2002

The North and South Korean football teams have played a landmark match in Seoul.

Their first game in nearly 10 years, dubbed the “Reunification Games”, ended in a 0-0 draw.

Some 60,000 fans packed the stadium waving the blue and white banners symbolising a unified Korean peninsula in a game free of political trappings.

After a frosty spell in relations last year, the North has made new attempts to widen its links with other countries with talks ranging between Seoul, Moscow and Tokyo.

The players entered the Sangam World Cup Stadium holding hands as crowds roared “Jo Kuk Tong Il!”, or “Unified Fatherland!”.

The BBC’s Seoul correspondent, Caroline Gluck, reports that Saturday’s match was not about winning or losing, but about uniting people and paving the way for future sports events.

The mainly Southern crowd kept up applause throughout the game for both sides but, our correspondent noted, it was especially loud for the Southern team’s four star players from the recent Wold Cup.

The game also acted as a taster for the North’s participation in the Asian Games, to be staged in the Southern port city of Pusan in three weeks’ time.

Positive message

The two teams did without their national anthems – if only because the Communist North’s anthem is banned under Southern law – and sang a traditional Korean folksong.

Chung Mong-joon, head of the Korean Football Association, said before kick-off that it would be a historic match which would unite people from the two states.

One elderly fan in the stadium who had moved from the North duing the 1950-1953 Korean War said it was time to set past bitterness aside.

“I came to the South because I hated Communists in the North,” Byun Jang-shik, 80, told The Associated Press.

“But I think it’s time for reconciliation. We can’t live hating each other forever.”

Since co-hosting the last World Cup and unexpectedly reaching the semi-finals, South Koreans have become passionate about football, our correspondent says.

But the authorities there decided to ban large open-air screenings of the match, fearing they could become politicised.

North Korea, which is still technically at war with the South, boycotted the World Cup but illegally broadcast highlights of the matches.

It did congratulate the South after its team came fourth in the Cup.

Reuniting families

In a further move towards improved relations, the first inter-Korean Red Cross talks have begun on restoring relations between families divided since the 1950-53 war.

Reports say both sides have already agreed in principle to open a permanent reunion centre but have disagreed over the location and the number of such places.

North Korea has insisted on Mount Kumgang as the sole location for a centre.

The scenic mountain is the only tourist attraction in the north open to South Koreans.

For its part, South Korea wants a second site at Dorasan Station, the last stop on the railway linking the two countries.