NOS Football•
The Dutch under-17 football players will play North Korea in the World Cup final against North Korea tonight at 8 p.m. in Morocco. Indeed, against North Korea, the most closed country in the world led by a dictatorial regime. Yet it is no fluke.
In 2024, North Korea won both the Under-17 and Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the third time for both teams. The North Korean women’s team is in tenth place in the FIFA world rankings, one place higher than the Netherlands. In the group stage of the Under-17 World Cup, North Korea was already too strong for the Netherlands 5-0.
What makes this country so successful in women’s football? The strategy behind the success is highly political. Behind the high walls of the closed regime, football is not just a sport, but a state affair.
“Sport is traditionally a powerful propaganda weapon,” says Remco Breuker, Korea expert at Leiden University. “North Korea has been doing well, especially in recent years. Thanks to its participation in the war against Ukraine, it earns money, energy, international prestige and geopolitical support.”
The country is also putting itself on the international map with football, the biggest sport in the world. “Certainly to be able to beat their great enemies South Korea and Japan in matches,” says Breuker.
Access to the capital
The sport is also lucrative for players themselves. Those who make it to the women’s team gain prestige and opportunities that remain out of reach for ordinary citizens. No million-dollar contracts, but access to the ‘better life’ in Pyongyang.
“Athletes have a special place,” Breuker knows. “Especially if you are good, it gives you status and opportunities. You get better food – also for your family – you live in Pyongyang, where living conditions are better, you have access to facilities and exemption from certain tasks.”
By qualifying for a major final tournament, the world becomes a little bigger for football players. This means that they can travel abroad, which is only allowed with permission from the state.
This is still done under total control, Breuker knows. “When athletes travel abroad, the state system travels with them along with security guards to ensure that the team is safe from approaches from foreign spies. This includes every South Korean or American.”
‘Mental coercion’
The ‘system’ must also ensure that no one flees. “There is no physical coercion, but there is mental compulsion.” They hold meetings in hotel rooms to check whether everyone in the team is still loyal, says Breuker. “I’ve heard that many times from North Koreans who have fled.”
“It was also one of the results of our own research into North Korean workers in Poland. They tell you that the fact that you are allowed to travel is thanks to the great leader. With the unspoken threat: if you do something crazy, your family will pay the price.”
Very professionalized youth football
Much of North Korea’s football talent comes from the Pyongyang International Football School, which has been in existence since 2013. There, young athletes from all over the country are selected for both their football and school achievements.
The focus there on sporting development is exactly how a country like North Korea can make a difference. So says Jung-Woo Lee, senior lecturer in Sports and Leisure Policy at the University of Edinburgh.
“The country is not the best in terms of economy, science, human rights and the like. But they can be good at certain sports because, controlled from above, they can focus entirely on training and nothing else,” Lee previously told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
“In youth football, European sports organizations place more emphasis on fun. In North Korea, even at the age of 13 or 14, children follow very disciplined, systematic and highly professionalized programs so that they can excel from an early age.”
Fun is not important, it is about winning, because that is the best propaganda for the regime. Because the gap to the top in professional ‘adult football’ is large, North Korea focuses on youth, and women in particular.
The country was relatively early in women’s football in the mid-1980s and made its debut with the national team in the 1999 World Cup. North Korea was also one of the sixteen participating countries at the three subsequent global final tournaments, with a place in the quarter-finals in 2007 as the best result.
Doping scandal
During the 2011 World Cup, several North Korean football players were caught using banned steroids in Germany, which, in addition to suspensions and fines, also resulted in exclusion from the next World Cup. After all the problems, the country missed qualification for the World Cup in 2019.
Before the last World Cup, two years ago in Australia, North Korea withdrew because the country was closed due to Covid measures.
Whether the recent youth success can translate into new glory years for the main squad remains to be seen. Lee expects that the gap with top European countries, for example, will be difficult to close, because North Korean football players continue to play football in their own country and thus do not develop further at the highest level.
“It is not impossible to leave the country for a professional career, but certainly not easy.”
