Seoul (AsiaNews) - On the eve of the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, kicking off tomorrow in South Africa, it was confirmed that North Korea will not see the sporting event. This despite its National team having qualified for the finals, in one of the best sporting performances in the country’s history. The government, in fact, did not pay for the television rights for match coverage.
It is the result of Pyongyang’s continuing military provocations during the year: the talks on nuclear disarmament, now abandoned for some time, to the sinking of the South Korea corvette Cheonan, which led to a military escalation that brought the peninsula to the brink of another civil war.
The holder of TV rights for the World Cup Korea is SBS, which during the thaw between Seoul and Pyongyang transmitted the games free of charge to the North. But the era of the "Sunshine Policy", between the two countries seems to be over and the southern government - led by conservative Lee Myung-bak – will not take the cost of extra TV rights”.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul, the department that deals with the situation in the North, explained that "the decision was made in response to military provocations. We did not ask us to Pyongyang to build the atomic bomb or carry out attacks at sea. After the sinking of Cheonan, they can not expect anything from us”.
