When they faced Portugal in the next round, the team had still not recovered, Kang wrote, and lost. After the Italy win, rumours reached Pyongyang that the team had gone on a “wild-drinking binge” and may have broken the no-sex rule instilled by Kim Il-Sung. Park’s team began the 1966 World Cup in stunning fashion by upsetting Italy and qualifying for the quarter-finals. Article content Li Chan Myung, the North Korean goalkeeper clears the ball from Fogli and Perani of Italy during a 1966 World Cup match in Middlesbrough. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In his book, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Kang said Park Seung-jin earned a reputation for himself at the camp after surviving a “very long stint in a sweatbox.” The other prisoners would refer to Park as “cockroach” because rumours swirled that he survived by eating every insect that crossed his path. It was in one of these camps where Chol-hwan Kang said he encountered a member of the North Korean 1966 World Cup team. Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Imagesīecause the 22 Olympians weren’t involved in extensive training or preparation, there may be more leeway when it comes to punishment, Madden said.īeing humiliated in front of their peers is better than the alternative of athletes being sent away to detention facilities during the rule of Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Un’s grandfather. Article content Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal scores his team’s sixth goal during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group G match between Portugal and North Korea at the Green Point Stadium on Jin Cape Town, South Africa.
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The coach, Kim Jong-hung was forced to do manual labour before returning weeks later in a lesser role, Madden said. Players and coaches were subjected to a six-hour public reprimanding reportedly attended by hundreds of North Korean athletes, coaches and officials. When the 2010 World Cup team failed to even draw one game before being eliminated in the group stage, they returned home for a larger-scale humiliation. Athletes get “denounced to an extent, that wow, you almost wouldn’t be able to continue competing,” she said. Depending on the level of criticism being applied, athletes and coaches may also be assigned to do less-intensive manual labour such as digging ditches or cleaning the side of roads, Madden said.Ĭhoi Hyun Mi, who trained as a boxer in North Korea before defecting to the South, told CNN in 2014 that the public shaming sessions would only intensify if athletes lost to rivals in Japan, South Korea or the U.S. Normally, the sessions take place every two weeks but athletes - especially those who travel abroad - are publicly shamed every three or four days. Article content North Korea’s Gwang Choe-myong competes in the first run of the men’s giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Sunday, Feb.