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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| Glum N. Korean Workers Cheer National Team in S.Africa | |
| 2010-06-28 | |
| Clad uniformly in red jackets and hats, a group of people were rooting for the North Korean national football team during the World Cup in South Africa, waving the North Korean flag in perfect order. The U.S. magazine Newsweek says about 100 men in their 40s and 50s "with uniformly dark and haggard faces" showed up at the grandstand for North Korea's matches against Brazil and Portugal.
"Seated a few seats away from them were two younger men with healthier complexions who appeared to be their minders." The North Korean supporters, who were "perfunctorily waving miniature flags with the restraint of soldiers," were quite incongruous at the festival. They are workers of North Korea's Overseas Construction Company and overseas staff of Mansudae Creation Company who have been dispatched to Africa to earn foreign currency for the regime. "One of the most repeated World Cup mottos is 'a time to make friends,' but what if a country has become so foul in its isolation that its government has forgotten how to be a part of the world and its people are never allowed to interact with those outside, even the casual attendees of a soccer match? That, certainly, was the question these silent North Koreans provoked in South Africa this year," the weekly concluded. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |