“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News column penned by North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK in the last few years. 

Readers may submit their questions to defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Today’s question comes from Bartek in Gdańsk, Poland, who asks about soccer culture in the DPRK.

North Korea often airs soccer games played in the European leagues and even has a star sportsman, Han Kwang Song, playing overseas.

In-hua Kim, who lived in North Korea for decades before defecting in 2018, discusses what North Koreans really think about the game.

Got a question for In-hua? Email it to [email protected] with your name and city. We’ll be publishing the best ones.

The fitness of North Korea’s citizens is a barometer for the strength of the nation and an important step in patriotic education, according to propaganda.

Propaganda states that the “primary task of our sportspeople” is to “fly the flag of the victorious Republic above the heads of the people of the world and raise the stature of the Republic.” The country’s athletes live and train according to the slogans of “an ideological battle” and “a battle of morale.”

North Korean athletes appear in the newspaper and TV broadcasts for several days if they win an international event or at the Olympics. If an athlete loses to someone from another country, though, then you won’t hear anything about it.

Then again, the World Cup and the Olympics are far beyond the daily concerns of many because they live such harsh lives.

North Korea shows World Cup matches on television, but due to the country’s chronic electricity shortages, those who enjoy watching them will use solar panels to store power in preparation.

North Korea rarely broadcasts matches it loses. Any game in which they lose to the U.S., Japan or South Korea would certainly not be aired. If North Korea wins, though, the match will be shown on TV for multiple days in a row.

When North Koreans watch soccer games, they’re so envious of the cheering foreign spectators having fun.

“Even if their team loses, they do their best to shout words of encouragement. Our athletes have to go through several days of self-criticism if they lose a match.”

North Koreans don’t even know the names of their national team’s players, even those that play in major leagues overseas like Han Kwang Song.

Since Kim Jong Un is apparently a fan of basketball, sycophantic cadres have been organizing matches all over the country. I never saw any basketball games before I left North Korea in 2018, though.

Everyday life in North Korea is so difficult; who would be excited to hold a basketball game? Just because Kim Jong Un likes basketball doesn’t mean regular North Koreans do.

Back in the Kim Il Sung says, though, there was real soccer fever. Everyone would go to cheer their team at matches between different factories and companies on the weekends.

These games were a lot of fun. However, after Kim Jong Il became leader, he dissolved the factory and company soccer teams.

Sports have now largely disappeared from the lives of average North Koreans.

It pains me to think that North Koreans cannot go to watch a game of soccer in the park like foreigners and South Koreans do on a regular basis.

I hope peace and unification will come soon, so that North Koreans can also enjoy relaxing leisure activities like their Southern brethren.

Edited by James Fretwell