Players of the North Korean football team during the final of the Asian Games, October 6, 2023, in Hangzhou (China). JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Their ample red jerseys, with no apparent equipment supplier, with their flag as their only coat of arms seem to come from another time. However, North Korea’s footballers are close to writing one of the great pages of their history. Saturday February 24, in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), at 2 p.m. (Paris time), they challenge Japan in the first leg of the qualifying tournament for Paris 2024 in the Asia zone (return on the 28th, in Tokyo). One step away from the Olympic Games, the team hopes to take part in its first major competition since those in London in 2012.
A performance that the North Korean regime would necessarily view favorably. “Apart from sport, there are not many areas where such a state can carry its colors high on the international stage”, explains Brigitte Weich. During his various visits to Pyongyang, between 2002 and 2016 to film two documentaries with the players of the selectionthis director witnessed the craze for women’s football within the dictatorship.
An interest personally cultivated by the former leader, Kim Jong-il, in power from 1994 until his death in 2011. “When he arrived, world women’s football was not as developed as athletics or gymnastics”, continues the director. With two honorable performances in the Asian Cup (semi-finalist then finalist in 1991 and 1993) just before the father of the current leader, Kim Jong-un, took office, women’s football “proved to be the most strategic discipline” in which to invest for the regime, confirms Lee Jung-woo, researcher at the University of Edinburgh and member of the European Center for North Korean Studies.
Players who became “symbols of hope” during the famine
The objective? Quickly be competitive in the eyes of the world. And this while the country’s economic resources were limited due to a great famine. « A At the end of the 20th century, female players became political symbols of hope. Women’s football has become an important propaganda tool to enable the population to survive this difficult time. adds the academic, author from the article “The politics of women’s football in North Korea”. Focus on a team sport “allowed the State to emotionally involve more people”.
Summoned to shine, the players were put in the best conditions – for the country –, receiving more food rations and the keys to apartments in the capital as a reward for their “devotion”. A strategy that paid off, with three Asian Cups (2001, 2003, 2008) and three gold medals at the Asian Games (2002, 2006, 2014), in addition to regular participation in the World Cup and the Olympic Games.
You have 52.2% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
