Talent, discipline and a desire to please leader Kim Jong-un have helped propel North Korea’s youth footballers to two Women’s World Cup crowns in a matter of weeks, experts say.
Nuclear-armed but impoverished, North Korea is more often in the news for sanctions-busting ballistic missile launches.
But after winning the under-17 Women’s World Cup on Sunday, state media proclaimed that the country’s teenage players were “the attention of football experts, fans and spectators across the world.”
Photo: AFP
The U17 triumph came after North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world — also lifted the Women’s World Cup at under-20 level in September.
“I want to first share this joyous news with our beloved father and leader Kim Jong-un,” under-17 goalkeeper Park Ju-gyong said. “I am so happy and overwhelmed that I can’t help but cry.”
Giving thanks to the Kim family is a tradition for North Korean athletes after notable victories.
Photo: AFP
Lee Sang-yoon, a former player for the South Korean men’s team, said that North Korea’s women footballers are “very skillful and known for their stamina.”
He said that the “political system” also comes into it — in that “they strictly adhere to predetermined play patterns in terms of formation and tactics.”
Irune Dorado, part of the Spain under-17 team beaten on penalties in the final, called the North Koreans “a very intense team.”
Photo: AFP
“They don’t let you breathe,” she told the FIFA Web site.
WHY WOMEN?
Across the board, North Korean women appear to outperform men at sport.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, out of a total of 11 gold medals, 10 were won by women athletes.
When the government picks North Korea’s top 10 athletes of the year, it is often mostly women.
“While North Korean society is extremely patriarchal in many ways, the state is more than willing to elevate female athletes to the same — and in some cases higher — level as their male counterparts,” said Shreyas Reddy, a North Korean analyst at the Web site NK News.
The logic behind it is simple.
“It represents a greater chance of success,” he said.
North Korea’s men have been to the World Cup twice, famously reaching the quarter-finals in England in 1966. They are currently ranked 111 in the world.
Their female counterparts have been to the Women’s World Cup four times, getting to the quarter-finals in 2007. They are ranked ninth.
It has changed in recent years, with European nations investing in women’s football, but for decades North Korea seized their chance in the female game when other countries weren’t so interested, experts say.
The two recent World Cup victories were not one-offs.
North Korea have won each tournament a record three times, although that is yet to translate into success when it comes to the biggest prize of all, the Women’s World Cup.
Former Premier League striker Shaun Goater was a member of FIFA’s technical study group at the under-17 tournament and watched every North Korea match.
“They are a really organized, fit, athletic team with a high level of technical ability and game understanding,” he said.
Winger Jon Il Chong walked off with the Golden Ball award for best player at the competition.
Another possible star of the future is countrywoman Choe Il Son. She was named the best player and was top-scorer at the under-20 World Cup.
‘FOOTBALL FAN KIM’
North Korean defector Cho Mi-young says that the state plucks the best budding footballers from primary schools across the country and brings them to the capital Pyongyang.
“As it’s one of the few opportunities for North Korea to gain positive attention in the international community, the country is dedicating significant resources to developing talented athletes,” Cho told Radio Free Asia.
The players undergo years of intense training, but Cho said “the strong mentality and tenacity of North Korean women might have been the biggest factor in their victory.”
“Their genuine belief in the need to please their leader” is another major motivation, said Cho.
Kim is said to have a passion for football and a “Pyongyang International Football School” opened two years into his rule.
Heo Jeong-pil, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said Kim had lent his “interest and support” to women’s football.
Heo put the teams’ successes down to “their powerful physical conditioning combined with solid resolve.
“This drive is particularly motivated by an intense desire to enhance national prestige, a motivation that is notably stronger compared to other countries.”
While global attention is finally being focused on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) gray zone aggression against Philippine territory in the South China Sea, at the other end of the PRC’s infamous 9 dash line map, PRC vessels are conducting an identical campaign against Indonesia, most importantly in the Natuna Islands. The Natunas fall into a gray area: do the dashes at the end of the PRC “cow’s tongue” map include the islands? It’s not clear. Less well known is that they also fall into another gray area. Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claim and continental shelf claim are not
Since their leader Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and others were jailed as part of several ongoing bribery investigations, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has risen in the polls. Additionally, despite all the many and varied allegations against Ko and most of the top people in the party, it has held together with only a tiny number of minor figures exiting. The TPP has taken some damage, but vastly less than the New Power Party (NPP) did after it was caught up in a bribery scandal in 2020. The TPP has for years registered favorability in the thirties, and a Formosa poll
Nov. 4 to Nov. 10 Apollo magazine (文星) vowed that it wouldn’t play by the rules in its first issue — a bold statement to make in 1957, when anyone could be jailed for saying the wrong thing. However, the introduction to the inaugural Nov. 5 issue also defined the magazine as a “lifestyle, literature and art” publication, and the contents were relatively tame for the first four years, writes Tao Heng-sheng (陶恒生) in “The Apollo magazine that wouldn’t play by the rules” (不按牌理出牌的文星雜誌). In 1961, the magazine changed its mission to “thought, lifestyle and art” and adopted a more critical tone with
Chiayi County is blessed with several worthwhile upland trails, not all of which I’ve hiked. A few weeks ago, I finally got around to tackling Tanghu Historic Trail (塘湖古道), a short but unusually steep route in Jhuci Township (竹崎). According to the Web site of the Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山國家風景區), the path climbs from 308m above sea level to an elevation of 770m in just 1.58km, an average gradient of 29 percent. And unless you arrange for someone to bring you to the starting point and collect you at the other end, there’s no way to avoid a significant amount
RSS