Use the World Cup to protest North Korea?

Kim Jong Il.jpg
Every four years the World Cup provides a forum to condemn a “rogue nation.”
In 2006, Senator John McCain introduced a Senate resolution advocating a World Cup ban on Iran, one of the original ” Axis of Evil”. Fortunately, FIFA held firm in its policy to disregard such politically loaded demands and McCain’s resolution went nowhere.
This time it is North Korea, part of the same “Axis of Evil”. The North Koreans arrive at the World Cup following accusations by the South Koreans of causing the unprovoked sinking of one of their naval ships that claimed the lives of 46 sailors this March.
The incident has sparked an international crisis with war a real threat between the two neighbours with the North Koreans in possession of an undisclosed arsenal of nuclear weapons in their possession. It has led to a flurry of diplomatic activity with the premiers of China, Japan, and South Korea recently meeting to sort out the best way to deal with the crisis.
South Korea has already cut off most of its trade ties. Japan has also followed suit but it is China, the country with the most sway with the reclusive Kim Jong Il who have refused to commit to condemn or to sanction the North Koreans. Without Chinese intervention, these sanctions have very little actual meaning, other than symbolic ones.
So here come the alternatives. An article in the LA Times by Paul Stares opines that the World Cup is the best forum to publicly rebuke the North Koreans who qualified after 44 years. Millions of viewers will tune in to see their matches in the Group of Death with Brazil, Portugal, and Ivory Coast. Players could be encouraged in those squads to wear the number 46 emblazoned on armbands or wristbands in solidarity with the bereaved South Korean sailors.
Stares mentions that similar symbols of protest were employed by some Iranian players in last years Confederation Cup when they wore green wristbands in support of the Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate of the Green movement, who contested the presidential elections against the authoritarian Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
The rigged election which led to Ahmedinejad retaining his presidency sparked a wave of protests which engulfed Iran for days with the police and the Basij, the para military thugs used by the government resorting to brutal methods to quell the nascent movement to democracy.
The murder of Neda Agha- Soltan captured on camera went viral around the world as millions tuned onto it through the internet and Twitter. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched through the streets chanting, “Where is my vote?”
It led to a brief but exhilarating hope that in the face of such populist anger, the hold of the Muslim clerics on every facet of Iranian life would finally yield to the more progressive and reformist vision first initiated by Mohammed Khatami, whose election in 1997 as president of Iran brought a temporary end to the Iranian revolution which brought to power Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the installation of an Islamic Republic.
The Iranian players who wore those green armbands during the Confederations Cup were were forced to retire by the Iranian Football Federation. FIFA on hearing the news wrote a letter to the Federation demanding an explanation which led to denials that the players were punished.
So will such symbols of protest work in the case of North Korea? In Iran’s case, beyond these gestures: the pro reform, pro democracy movement is now a nascent aspect of the political landscape in Iran. Such symbols have power only when they signify a broader change in socio-political parameters within the existing hierarchy, or a complete breakaway. The Vietnam peace sign worked because the US public wanted an end to the 20 year war. They had had enough.
The Iranian players wore armbands because they were part of a vanguard heralding that change which the world witnessed through the instant access of social network sites and cell phone cameras. The revolution was televised. Much of the intense interest came from the awareness that a change to a more progressive Iran also impacts viscerally the prospects of Middle East peace, earth’s most intractable geopolitical puzzle.
In North Korea’s case, the public’s feelings towards that country are defined by Dear Leader’s quixotic cult of personality. The international ramifications of a dispute between the world’s most politically isolated country and its southern neighbour is less well understood or even followed by anyone other than a political junkie. Even South Koreans despite this most grievous provocation are ambivalent in their feelings. They see an enemy but they also see a badly behaved brother.
With this context in mind, armbands with 46 emblazoned or spectators bearing placards will resonate less with a viewing public robbing it of meaning and potency as a way of shaming North Korea. The potential meeting of both countries on the pitch might be the subject of intense political debate but beyond that little else.

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5 comments on “Use the World Cup to protest North Korea?
  1. Why when others do something in sports that is political we condemn them but it’s okay for us to do it? The West is the most hypocritical part of the world.
    Leave everything out of sports. These 22 North Korean players have the same passion for the sport of football/soccer as every other player. Let them have a fair shot.
    Sickens me how American’s always think they are better than everyone else. YOU ARE NOT!

  2. Wiseman, I’m responding to an article written by a political scientist and arguing why such a protest will fail. But it is reality, the mixing of sports and politics and everyone does it. Whether it is international or on a more local level. The US just happens to have more think tanks and paid analysts to air such views.

  3. South Korea has very important elections coming up in a month or so, their incumbents are very unpopular and are desperate to stay in power. North Korea has denied and even offered material refutations of the accusation. The serial number “conveniently” located from the torpedo (Really? they found any bit of a torpedo at all, let alone a small bit with an identifier on it?)had characters only used by the South Koreans (there are substantial differences in dialect between North and South Korea) and the North Koreans pointed this out. The West has wanted to get into N. Korea for a long time and if it’s through corruptible South Korean politicians they’ll go for it. I lived in South Korea from 2005-2007: the countries don’t want to go to war, the people don’t want to go to war, but desperate politicians…that’s another matter entirely.
    Bet you didn’t read that in the N.Y. Times or the BBC news.

  4. Who are prophesying these ideas?
    The same people who illegally occupied so many nations, who sprayed Nalpalm and kill innocents and children under the pretext of false accusations? the same old buggers who dont have the courage to condemn the brutal and ongoing aggression on Palestinian people? What right do they have to exhort these kind of directives?
    First of all the qualification of North Korea for world cup is in an extraordinary way a popular myth buster. How can a country which is often portrayed as rogue, famished and retrograde qualify for world cup and compete with any Asian football super power on any scale?
    Will more and more vilification and isolation bring about a positive change? Why is it that these fickle minded journos gets at anyone who is not willing to follow the path America sets in?
    In no way i am supporting the mad closet regime in North Korea but their football team is quite a contradiction when compared to their politics. the main striker in born and lives in Japan. 2 of their players ply their trade in Russia and so on. Instead of seeing this as opportunity to sham them, why not think of something else?

  5. I think for the sake of human rights and the TRUTH, that it is perfectly acceptable, if not our duty (and i speak on behalf of the entire world) to make N Koreans aware in some way of the true circumstances in which they live.
    The N Korean media has pitted the world as an awful, evil place that is out to get them, and this media attention (if it isn’t horribly censored) will be a great way for N Korean viewers to see, through the passion of the people in the bleachers and the beauty and grandeur of the soccer stadiums, that the world is not such a terrible place, and perhaps they are being misled by their government.
    Is that such an AWFUL thing to hope for? The west has no desire to “get into” N Korea, we would much rather see them prosper on their own, and not be such a paranoid, global liability.
    As for condemning politics in sports – this is a policy of FIFA, and one which I generally approve of, however there are some issues that the World Cup provides a perfect setting to bring light upon, such as the Iranian election, and I’m pretty sure “we” did not condemn that, but rather supported it.
    And that torpedo, although another matter altogether, all the sources I’ve read state that the hand-written serial number was written in N Korean… so you can stop with your conspiracy theories and perhaps accept that the most logical answer is in this case probably the right one. The “little bit” they found was the propeller, which is generally a separate part and therefore has its own serial #.
    What will N Korea do when their team loses? Kim Jong Il himself is said to have scored 38 under par with 11 holes in one playing golf (far more than the world record) – perhaps they will claim their team was poisoned like they did against a recent defeat to S Korea… or maybe they’ll somehow claim that they actually won the World Cup!!!
    I have no sympathy for N Korea’s government, and while I feel sorry for their people (the nighttime photo of Korea comes to mind – S Korea is bright with lights while N Korea is pitch black), I feel their people need to know the truth about their country, and the World Cup is the best way to do it.

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