Ariel 'Foreign Bureau'

By Richard Fleming, World Service Sport reporter, 12 April 2005

Recently I became the first journalist from World Service sport to gain access to North Korea – a week long trip that took nine months to organise.

The doors didn’t open until December when I went to Malaysia for the draw of the World Cup qualifying rounds – an ideal opportunity to make contact with North Korea’s football reps.

When North Korea was drawn to play Bahrain at home, I realised that here was the chance I had been waiting for as, under the rules, journalists must be allowed to attend World Cup qualifying matches.

I entered the country via Beijing which is where I was issued with my visa.

Once in North Korea I was met at the airport by two ‘guides’ (actually government minders) and a driver, and they stayed by my side throughout. I was never allowed to leave the hotel unless in a car.

I stayed in the capital Pyongyang – a showcase city, many of whose residents have been invited to live there because of their loyalty to the regime.

Bowing and scraping

Pyongyang has around two million people although you’d never know it as it’s so quiet and, in the evening, very dim as there is hardly any lighting.

I had to record items for Alan Green’s World of Football programme but getting the material I wanted was extremely difficult. All requests had to go through my senior minder, who had little understanding of why I was visiting his country.

I was keen to find out about their women’s football squad, which is strong, and their youth training programme, but was never able to talk to the right people. The response to all tricky requests was: ‘Maybe.’

Instead I was taken to places I didn’t really want to see, such as a film studio and art gallery, and the mausoleum of Kim II Sung.

Hundreds of people were waiting to file past his body lying in state, bowing and scraping as they went. I was sent to the head of the queue: a) because the officials didn’t want foreign guests hanging around in the cold and b) because if I joined the back of the queue I might chat to local people.

Refreshingly naive

North Korea lost the game against Bahrain and later lost to Iran as well, so their chances of qualifying for the World Cup are slim. The last time they reached the final stages was in 1966 and they haven’t even entered the last two World Cups.

They are still emerging from the football dark ages and the big story is where do they go from here. They have a domestic league of just eight teams and, although their players get paid a small amount, they have other jobs as well, mainly in the army.

I had dinner at the British embassy with eight members of the 1966 squad. They were fascinated by David Beckham and Michael Owen and staggered by their salaries.

Their refreshing but naive attitude was that football was a game and they had no concept of it as big business.

North Korea is the last secret society and a mystery to everyone including its own Asian neighbours.

I’ve been to Africa and parts of the former eastern bloc where you expect things to be a bit different, but this trip was far removed from anything else I’ve ever encountered.

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