North Korea allows a glimpse inside a rare success story – its women’s soccer

[ad_1] North Korean girls’s soccer has loved an unprecedented yr of success and the federal government just lately allowed exterior information media uncommon entry into its coaching program, a transfer doubtless meant to spice up its worldwide profile.

In 2024, its nationwide girls’s groups stunned the worldwide soccer neighborhood by profitable each the FIFA under-17 and under-20 girls’s World Cups.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="Kim Jong Un meets with the North Korea's U-20 women's football team, which won the World Cup in Colombia, at the ruling Workers' Party headquarters in Pyongyang, Sept. 30, 2024, in this photo released by the North Korean government." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/7KJABJMX6VCRFCUNIZGDPC4CMU.JPG?auth=eba1303c21d6fc0bdd36e49ec6bfa3ddc3d83afb1b58f0411409b487ae7018fd&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/7KJABJMX6VCRFCUNIZGDPC4CMU.JPG?auth=eba1303c21d6fc0bdd36e49ec6bfa3ddc3d83afb1b58f0411409b487ae7018fd&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/7KJABJMX6VCRFCUNIZGDPC4CMU.JPG?auth=eba1303c21d6fc0bdd36e49ec6bfa3ddc3d83afb1b58f0411409b487ae7018fd&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/7KJABJMX6VCRFCUNIZGDPC4CMU.JPG?auth=eba1303c21d6fc0bdd36e49ec6bfa3ddc3d83afb1b58f0411409b487ae7018fd&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/7KJABJMX6VCRFCUNIZGDPC4CMU.JPG?auth=eba1303c21d6fc0bdd36e49ec6bfa3ddc3d83afb1b58f0411409b487ae7018fd&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/7KJABJMX6VCRFCUNIZGDPC4CMU.JPG?auth=eba1303c21d6fc0bdd36e49ec6bfa3ddc3d83afb1b58f0411409b487ae7018fd&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> North Korean chief Kim Jong Un meets with the nation's Below-20 girls's soccer workforce Kim Jong Un meets with the North Korea's U-20 girls's soccer workforce, which received the World Cup in Colombia, on the ruling Staff' Occasion headquarters in Pyongyang, Sept. 30, 2024, on this photograph launched by the North Korean authorities. (KCNA by way of Reuters) In contrast to their male counterparts, who haven’t prospered on the worldwide stage since qualifying for the 1966 World Cup quarterfinals, the ladies’s workforce have fared significantly better, qualifying for the Girls’s World Cup 4 instances and reaching the quarterfinals in 2007.

Providing a uncommon glimpse into their coaching routine and communist North Korea’s cloistered elite sports activities infrastructure, SNTV -- a world sports activities video company collectively operated by The Related Press and IMG – launched a report this week together with interviews with gamers and coaches and pictures of coaching periods.

It featured gamers from the elite Amnokgang Sports activities Membership, together with core members of the nationwide workforce, equivalent to Jeon Il-cheong, who was named most dear participant on the 2024 FIFA U-17 Girls’s World Cup. She expressed dedication to construct on their success.

“What we achieved final yr is just the start,” Jeon instructed SNTV. “We is not going to relaxation. We're operating laborious on the coaching floor to win future worldwide competitions.”

A lot of the soccer expertise originates from the Pyongyang Worldwide Soccer College, an elite youth growth facility that mixes educational training with intensive athletic coaching. In line with college director Kim Gwang-chol, the varsity admits college students with each educational aptitude and athletic potential from throughout the nation.

“We offer a twin training system that features basic secondary training and specialised soccer coaching,” Kim instructed SNTV.

Graduates of the varsity usually go on to play for top-tier home golf equipment like Amnokgang and April 25 Sports activities Membership, finally feeding into the nationwide workforce.

However specialists consider there’s greater than easy satisfaction in North Korea’s success on the soccer pitch behind the sudden show of openness to exterior media.

Lee Hyun-seung, who defected from North Korea in 2014 and is now senior technique adviser on North Korea on the U.S.-based International Peace Basis, instructed Radio Free Asia that the transfer is probably going a part of a broader propaganda technique.

“North Korea can’t preserve counting on outdated Nineteen Eighties and Nineties strict propaganda ways endlessly,” mentioned Lee. “The regime’s propaganda arm appears to be shifting its technique - utilizing worldwide achievements to advertise the prevalence of the North Korean system to the skin world.”

He added that internally, this success can also be framed in ideological phrases: as the results of the “grace and care” of the supreme chief, Kim Jong Un.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="North Korean players celebrate with the trophy after winning the U-20 Women's World Cup final soccer match against Japan in Bogota, Colombia, Sept. 22, 2024." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/JHZMJCBOSBE4VEAKYLFZYW22HU.jpg?auth=1a29c92cac5b8836d3b6f624dc647a539412fb6f2276d1af7b3ff14954c6e6ed&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/JHZMJCBOSBE4VEAKYLFZYW22HU.jpg?auth=1a29c92cac5b8836d3b6f624dc647a539412fb6f2276d1af7b3ff14954c6e6ed&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/JHZMJCBOSBE4VEAKYLFZYW22HU.jpg?auth=1a29c92cac5b8836d3b6f624dc647a539412fb6f2276d1af7b3ff14954c6e6ed&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/JHZMJCBOSBE4VEAKYLFZYW22HU.jpg?auth=1a29c92cac5b8836d3b6f624dc647a539412fb6f2276d1af7b3ff14954c6e6ed&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/JHZMJCBOSBE4VEAKYLFZYW22HU.jpg?auth=1a29c92cac5b8836d3b6f624dc647a539412fb6f2276d1af7b3ff14954c6e6ed&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/JHZMJCBOSBE4VEAKYLFZYW22HU.jpg?auth=1a29c92cac5b8836d3b6f624dc647a539412fb6f2276d1af7b3ff14954c6e6ed&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> north-korea-women-soccer North Korean gamers have fun with the trophy after profitable the U-20 Girls's World Cup closing soccer match towards Japan in Bogota, Colombia, Sept. 22, 2024. (Ricardo Mazalan/AP) Cho Han-bum, a senior analysis fellow on the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Nationwide Unification, instructed South Korea’s Segye Ilbo that North Korea was utilizing sporting achievements to “consolidate the system, because it faces financial difficulties and lacks different accomplishments to advertise.”

Jean Lee, presidential chair on the U.S.-based suppose tank, the East-West Heart, mentioned the SNTV footage supplies an attention-grabbing glimpse into the “sports activities routine and equipment in North Korea” and hints that North Korea is able to begin opening up.

“This kind of propaganda is supposed to encourage in addition to exhibit an business - sports activities - that the North Koreans are immensely happy with and make investments fairly a bit in. Sports activities are a comparatively low-cost solution to generate worldwide recognition, and sporting competitions are one enviornment the place North Koreans are welcome overseas,” mentioned Lee, former Seoul and Pyongyang bureau chief for The Related Press.

However she added that watching the video additionally offers a way of the type of strain that the younger girls soccer gamers are below.

“They practice from a younger age to serve their nation as athletes. They're really proficient, and it’s heartwarming to see their dedication, however I can’t assist but in addition really feel that the strain to excel is immense,” she instructed RFA.