North Korea In Sports- Few Victories, Plenty Of Stories

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The hermit kingdom boasts the largest sports facility in the world, the 114,000-seat Rungrado May Day Stadium located in the heart of Pyongyang.

An architectural expression of the regime’s self-deluded greatness, the venue was built less for competitive sports and more for mass festivals that celebrate the country’s history and its leaders.

North Korea has few notable achievements on the world sporting stage. Pyongyang first competed at the Winter Olympics in 1964 and it wasn’t until 1972 that the secretive nation made its debut at the Summer Olympics.

In total, the Kim dynasty has racked up 54 Olympic medals including 16 gold in weightlifting, wrestling, gymnastics, boxing, and judo. The nation ranks 45th out of 230 in the international medals count.

In contrast, South Korea joined the Olympics in 1948 and has accumulated 317 medals (116 gold). With a population that is double that of its northern neighbor, South Korea ranks 19th on the Olympics table.

In soccer, North Korea reached the FIFA World Cup tournament only twice- 1966 and 2010. The first trip marked an impressive run as the national team became the first Asian squad to advance past the opening rounds of a World Cup.

After upsetting powerhouse Italy 1-0, the team was knocked out by Portugal at the quarter-finals in one of the Cup’s greatest come-back matches of all time. The North Koreans led their opponents 3-0 in the first half, only to allow 5 goals after the 25th minute and lose the contest 5-3.

At the biennial World Championships, female Jong Song-ok remains the country’s only sports figure to win a medal after she took first place at the marathon event in 1999.

But what the communist-run state lacks in athletic grandeur, it makes up in the farcical and bizarre.

In 1994, North Korean media reported that then leader, Kim Jong-il, bowled a perfect 300 in his first visit to a bowling alley. The pin master was also proclaimed to sink 5 holes-in-one and shoot 31 under par at the country’s only 18-hole golf course.

But the true sports passion of the late dictator and his son, current strongman Kim Jong-un, has always been basketball.

The elder was said to have regulation-size courts at most of his palaces and a DVD library with all of Michael Jordan’s games. As a gift, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright even presented the diminutive leader with a ball signed by the Chicago Bulls star.

The only North Korean athlete to come close to playing professionally in the U.S. was Ri Myung-hun, a 7 ft 8½ inch giant scouted by the NBA in the late 1990’s.

But the State Department would only grant permission if Ri’s salary remained in the U.S. and not repatriated back home. Kim Jong-il refused and reportedly offered to be paid in wheat instead of cash. Negotiations eventually collapsed and Ri never made it to the NBA.

“Basketball Diplomacy” continued with Kim Jong-un who struck a friendship with the tattooed and lip-studded former NBA forward, Dennis Rodman.

The latter made several trips to the Democratic People’s Republic to help train the national team. In 2013, he and his entourage were the first known Americans to meet the young ruler, in power for just over a year.

Rodman’s visits were depicted in the 2015 documentary film, “Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang” (available on our site).

More than any other medium, sports have provided outsiders with the few glimpse into the mysteries of North Korea.

Other articles enjoyed: France: Sports Pioneers, Ireland On The Sporting Map, Finland's Sports Phenom, Israel's Maccabiah Games 

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SPORTS HISTORY MAGAZINE in DIGITAL

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