Sport in North Korea
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Historically, North Korea's participation in international sporting events has been hindered by the relations with South Korea.[1] Until the 1990s, North Korea used to host up to 14 international events every year, albeit in small scale. Since the early 1990s, the amount was reduced to just one, the Paektusan Prize International Figure Skating Festival.[2] More recently, since the 2000s, North Korea both participates in and hosts more international competitions.[3]
In recent years, however, cooperation in sports has gotten better.
Running
Football
1966 World Cup
In 1965, the
After losing 3-0 to the
In the quarterfinal round, the North Koreans faced the Portugal national football team. The North Koreans scored three consecutive goals in the first 24 minutes. Portugal needed a four-goal effort by Eusébio to pull out a 5-3 victory.
2010 World Cup
The Chollima[a] did not qualify for any further World Cup finals until they advanced to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Both Koreas qualified for the 2010 finals. Based on the group stage draw, the two Korean sides would not have been able to meet until at least the semi-finals of the knockout stage. The North Korean team failed to get past the group stages, finishing bottom of the group and losing all three matches.[9]
Domestic football
North Korea has domestic leagues for both men and women, and all games take place at
In September 2010, the first official friendly match between a domestic football team and a foreign club took place in the Kim Il-sung Stadium, featuring the German All Stars, an expatriate team from Singapore. The North Korean team won the two consecutive days matches (1-0 and 4-2).[8]
In 2018, the German All Stars returned to Pyongyang, taking part in 2 friendlies against DPRK Premier League team Hwaebul Sports Club. After a 7-0 drumming in the first game, GAS stepped into the Kim Il Sung Stadium, narrowly losing 4-2. Thomas Nock scored the first goal for the German side, before Fraser Tyler became the first Englishman to score in the DPRK, with a superb swerving strike from the left side of the area. Despite 2 defeats in under a week, the Germans clawed back some pride, defeating Hwaebul in a penalty shootout by 7 goals to 6.
Women's football
Since 1993, the women's football team has seen more success on the international stage than the men's side, qualifying for the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. In 1999, the team defeated Denmark during the group stage, and in 2003 defeated African champion Nigeria. The women's team has established itself as one of the strongest in Asia, winning the 2001 and 2003 AFC Women's Asian Cups after finishing as the runner-up in 1993 and 1997.
In September 2010, the
Basketball
North Korea is also active in basketball, with
The current and previous leaders of DPR Korea were known for their fondness of basketball.
In December 2013, former American basketball professional
Winter sports
The Paektusan Prize International Figure Skating Festival is hosted annually, a practice that continued even through the 1990s when hosting all other international sporting events was suspended.[2]
Ice hockey
Hockey was introduced to North Korea by visiting Soviet and Chinese workers in the 1950s. Since then, North Koreans have competed in international events. Hockey is a popular pastime in the country.[17]
Success of the North Korean national ice hockey teams has been limited.
The women's team is ranked 26 out of 34[20] and competes in Division II.[citation needed]
Golf
North Korea has one golf course in use: the Pyongyang Golf Complex.[21] The course is 18 holes and 20 miles from Pyongyang. In 2011 the first DPRK Amateur Golf Open took place[22] and is now an annual event,[23] open to nationalities from all around the world.
Gymnastics
The
Taekwondo
Professional wrestling
In 1995, a crew from defunct national professional wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling, led by company Executive Producer Eric Bischoff and former World Champion Ric Flair among others, flew to Pyongyang via China to participate in an "International Peace Festival" co-organised by North Korea and Japanese politician Antonio Inoki, himself a former professional wrestling icon. Over the course of two days, WCW played to an audience of 340,000, at Pyongyang May Day stadium, the largest ever audience for a professional wrestling show, with a main event on the final night of Inoki vs. Flair, with a guest appearance by boxing icon Muhammad Ali.
Matches from the two shows, as well as footage from inside Pyongyang and a mass gymnastic display, were released on pay-per-view and VHS some 17 months after the event, entitled Collision in Korea, and though the PPV performed dismally, pulling a 0.15, the VHS release has become something of a cult hit among longtime wrestling fans and North Korean culture enthusiasts, the atmosphere of the show being so radically different from American wrestling's usual bombast and pageantry.
North Korea at the Olympics
North Korea's first Summer Olympics appearance on its own was in the
The nation returned to Olympic competition in 1992 at the Barcelona Games, winning an unprecedented nine medals in Spain, four of them gold.
At the
North Korean athletes have competed in several
In October 2013, Kim Jong-un introduced a new policy that allows successful athletes to receive luxury apartments in recognition for their achievements. The reward was given to Om Yun-chol, An Kum-ae and Kim Un-guk, who earned Olympic medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[29]
North Korea at the Asian Games
North Korea has competed at the Asian Games since 1974. It ranked at the top five in 1974, 1978, 1982, and 1990.[30] In 2018, athletes from North and South combined to claim the first gold medal for a unified Korea at the Asian Games in a women's canoe race.[31]
North Korean sport in cinema
Two English language documentaries have been created by British filmmaker Daniel Gordon involving North Korean sport.
The 2002 film The Game of Their Lives details the seven surviving members of the 1966 World Cup team.
The 2004 film A State of Mind follows two child gymnasts and their families as they prepare for the 2003 Arirang Festival.
The
See also
Notes
References
- ^ a b Payne, Marissa (30 September 2017). "PyeongChang Olympic organizers happy to see first North Koreans qualify for 2018 Games". Washington Post. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- ^ a b c North Korea Handbook 2002, p. 487.
- ^ North Korea Handbook 2002, p. 489.
- ^ "North Korea says it wants sports equipment, not missiles". Fox News. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
- ^ North Korea Handbook 2002, p. 492.
- ^ a b "Etiopia hallitsee naisten maratonia – Pohjois-Korea maailman parhaita" [Ethiopia dominates women's marathon – North Korea among the best in the world]. kestavyysurheilu.fi (in Finnish). Kestävyysurheilu. 2016-10-20. Archived from [冰淇淋 http://www.kestavyysurheilu.fi/kestavyysjuoksu/14279-etiopia-hallitsee-naisten-maratonia-pohjois-korea-maailman-parhaita the original] on 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
{{cite web}}
: Check|url=
value (help) - ^ Sallay, Alvin (26 January 2015). "North Korea best as Kim Hye-gyong fends off African challenge to win women's marathon". South China Morning Post.
- ^ a b "German All Stars Singapore Football Club". gas-sg.com. Archived from the original on 2011-01-21. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ "Fifa investigates North Korea World Cup abuse claims". BBC. 11 August 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
- ^ "Middlesbrough Ladies footballers back from North Korea". BBC. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
- ^ Zeigler, Mark (2006-10-29). "The Oddest Fan". San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
- ^ Fisher, Max (2013-03-01). "Kim Jong Eun inherited an eccentric obsession with basketball from father Kim Jong Il". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
- ^ "Rodman returns to North Korea amid political unrest". Fox News. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
- ^ "Dennis Rodman with Kim Jong-un in North Korea". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
- ^ Longman, Jeré (23 May 2017). "With the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Will the North Be Participant or Provocateur?". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
- ^ Taylor, Adam (3 January 2018). "Why the Olympics matter when it comes to North Korea". Washington Post. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
- ^ a b Hotham, Oliver (1 June 2016). "Give pucks a chance: ice hockey diplomacy in North Korea". NK News. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
- ^ via http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/countries/dpr-korea.html
- ^ DPK Asian Mystery Archived 2008-03-17 at the Wayback Machine via icehockey.lu
- ^ women's world ranking 2010 via "Error!". Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- DPRK.
- ^ "DPRK Amateur Golf Open 2011". CNN.
- ^ "DPRK Amateur Golf Open 2013".
- ^ Merkel, Udo. "'The grand mass gymnastics and artistic performance Arirang' (2002–2012): North Korea's socialist–realist response to global sports spectacles." The International Journal of the History of Sport 30.11 (2013): 1247–58.
- ^ CENTER, NCC. "The Arirang Mass Games of North Korea 朝鮮民主主義人民共和国のアリラン祭 Rüdiger Frank."
- ^ Jung, Hyang Jin. "Jucheism as an Apotheosis of the Family: The Case of the Arirang Festival." Journal of Korean Religions 4.2 (2013): 93–122.
- ^ Knox, Constance (10 September 2017). "UK taekwondo athletes to compete in North Korea despite crisis". Express.
- ^ North Korea Handbook 2002, p. 488.
- ^ Peter Rutherford; Ian Ransom (4 October 2013). "North Korea rewards athletes with luxury apartments". Reuters. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
- ^ "Participants: DPR Korea". Asian Games 2018. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
- Channel NewsAsia. 26 August 2018. Archived from the originalon 27 August 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
Works cited
- Yonhap News Agency (2002). North Korea Handbook. Seoul: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-3523-5.
External links
- Sports in the DPR Korea Archived 2019-10-22 at the Wayback Machine - Official website of the Korea Sports Fund
- Sports Archived 2017-11-30 at the Wayback Machine at The Pyongyang Times
- Sports at Naenara