Seoul (AsiaNews) - Sin Ui-gun, head coach of the North Korean women's football team, wants to make dictator Kim Jong-un happy at the 2012 London Olympics. In the British capital, he said the team will "delight our leader with good results at the Olympics." However, football has often meant bad news for North Korean players.
North Korean football teams can be surprising. In the last World Cup, they honourably lost 2-1 to Brazil. When their player scored, then leader Kim Jong-il cheered. However, when they lost 7-nil to Portugal, the dictator was not amused. He put the team before a people's court, and sent the coach and three players off to a labour camp.
Now the women's team could end up the same way. In their opening match, the North Koreans will meet the Colombian team, followed by the French and the Americans.
The United States are a two-time Olympic champion and currently ranked top team in the world.
North Korea's new dictator, the youthful Kim Jong-un, has decided to broadcast the team's matches live. His father usually had the broadcast delayed so as to decide whether the sporting event could be shown on national TV or not.
For some analysts, young Kim's decision is an attempt to distract the country from the ongoing purges inside the Stalinist regime.