North Korea’s World Cup presence: Voluntary Fans?

Since virtually no one in North Korea can afford to fly to South Africa let alone get permission for a visa, the Beijing office of the North Korean sports committee has started recruiting Chinese fans. A group of over 1000 famous Chinese actors, comedians and musicians who have been sent to cheer for China in previous World Cup tournaments will attend the games to support their brother country against soccer powerhouses Brazil and Portugal. The lowest-ranked of the 32 teams, North Korea faces a daunting task to survive the so-called “group of death.” Whether these cheerleaders dubbed “the volunteer army” by western press will be paid by the NK government to attend for expenses outside the tickets remains to be seen.

Group of Death aka Brazil, North Korea, Portugal, and Ivory Coast

If my lunchtime conversations are any barometer, Chinese youth are fairly indifferent about their country’s support of North Korea. The majority express embarrassment about China’s failure to qualify for the games. The fact that even the North Korean team qualified makes this more of a face-losing event. WanWan, 20, doesn’t think any of her friends would support the team because “1) they support European teams, 2) there is no hot football star on the NK team 3) NK is poor and backwards.” Angel, 22, says she doesn’t have time to watch football with between her job and night classes.

While most World Cup discussion focuses on China’s not making it to the games, Japan-raised NK striker Chong Tese has garnered attention on both international news sites and Chinese sporting blogs, which have nicknamed him the Korean Rooney after the English star and even the team’s “nuclear weapon.” Now that’s a pun if I’ve ever heard one. But that’s about all the attention the NK team is getting from pro-bono Chinese fans.

The NK team snubbed its big brother when it dropped the Chinese clothing brand Hongxing Erke for an Italian sportswear company Legea that just paid $4.9 million for the privilege. The Italian brand’s marketing team must hope the hype surrounding the hermit kingdom’s participation will raise the company’s international profile and has promised NK an extra 10 million Euros if the team wins. Something tells me this plan could backfire badly in the press. Lack of information about the North Korean team has created an international media frenzy. You can even buy “I <3 DPRK Football” infant bodysuits for $12.99.

North Korea baby suit

Still, the Chinese don’t seem any more interested in the NK than the Italians, or any other country for that matter.