Sport as a political tool: North Korea’s bizarre success stories

The North Korean Ministry of Information reports on historic heroic deeds: On his very first round of golf, Kim Jong-Il served up a total of eleven hole-in-ones, and on his first bowling try, the leader, who died in 2011, also managed to score the maximum number of points of 300 straight away. It’s actually a shame that the sporting world has been denied Kim Jong-Il’s extraordinary abilities.

The big show

The staging is still part of North Korean sports today. The most important sporting event in the country, the Arirang-Festivalis less a competition than a performance show, which seems very strange to non-North Koreans. More than 100,000 people take part in the “1st of May Stadium” in the Capital Pyongyang when the history of the country is re-enacted in mass choreographies through dancing and gymnastics. And every movement is perfect. It has to be perfect.

The so-called “Army of Beauty”, which North Korea led in 2018 to the Winter Games in Pyeongchang in South Korea: 229 women who looked alike from head to toe, loyal to the regime and allegedly Dictator Kim Jong-Un personally selected to accompany the competitions with their shrill singsong.

Both Olympic Games 2018 The two countries, which have been at war under international law for seven decades, had put their rivalry on ice for a short time and joint women’s ice hockey team with players from South and North Korea into the race. The two delegations also marched into the opening ceremony under a common flag.

The great successes

In purely sporting terms, North Korea is lagging far behind its southern neighbour. This was also evident this year at the Summer Games in Paris again clearly. While South Korea won 32 medals, North Korea only won six – in boxing, wrestling, table tennis and diving.

The largest Prestige achievements The isolated country has been able to celebrate in football so far. North Korea defeated WM 1966 Italy and reached the quarter-finals. The North Koreans have already reached the finals with their youth teams in 2006 (U-19 class) and 2008 (U-17). World Champion. The women’s team, which FIFA-Ranking in ninth place, has already won the Asiacup.

The big thunderstorm – or doping

In the fight for international attention, North Korea does not always play by the rules. Women’s World Cup In 2011, several players were doped, and the North Korean association then came up with bizarre arguments for the positive tests: the players were treated with a musk deer gland extract after being struck by lightning. Why 14 different steroids were found in the samples is another story.

FIFA’s thunder followed promptly: the North Koreans were excluded from the 2015 World Cup tournament and have not been seen at any finals since then.

The great silence

The men’s last World Cup appearance 2010 in South Africa was bizarre. The 0:7 defeat against Portugal The state television reporter stopped working when the score was 0-4 and remained silent until the final whistle. After returning home, the coach and players were asked by a 400-strong committee to give a six-hour report.

Kim Jong-Un who has been in power as “Supreme Leader” in North Korea since 2011, cannot be fooled. The overweight chain smoker is apparently a similar sporting talent to his father Kim Jong-Il: In any case, North Korean school books report that he was already a master marksman at the age of three and that he had already beaten the country’s sailing champion at the tender age of eight.