North Korea’s national soccer team and coach have been reprimanded for losing all three games at the World Cup in South Africa, a news report said.
The team and coach Kim Jong-hun were summoned to a meeting at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on July 2, the US-financed Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Monday.
North Korean Sports Minister Pak Myong-chol was among some 400 government officials, athletes and others at the six-hour-long closed-door session, the report said.
Team members were forced to reprimand their coach at the end of the gathering, the report said.
EXEMPTED
Forward Jong Tae-se, who recently joined German club Bochum, and midfielder An Yong-hak, who plays in Japan’s J-League, were exempted from the meeting, RFA said. Both were born and brough up in Japan.
Competing in their second World Cup finals after an absence of 44 years, North Korea were knocked out of the tournament at the group stage, beaten 2-1 by Brazil, then losing 7-0 to Portugal and 3-0 to Ivory Coast.
The report cited two unidentified sources in North Korea and a Chinese businessman named Yu, described as knowledgeable about North Korean affairs.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the country’s main spy agency, said yesterday it could not immediately confirm the report.
NO MENTION
Groups in Seoul that monitor information out of North Korea said they could not corroborate the report, and there was no mention of any such meeting in Pyongyang’s state media.
A veteran of North Korea’s 1966 squad had previously said the team would receive a warm welcome despite losing all three games in South Africa.
“Now when the Korean team gets home, officials and crowds of people will go to the airport to welcome them,” Pak Du-ik, who led his country to a shock quarter-final place in England 44 years ago, said last month.
“We have learned a lesson from the three World Cup matches, we accumulated experience and we found an answer to how to improve our football,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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