I know, sports/FSA but stay with me here. So someone told me that N. Koreas fans at the world cup are actually rented from china. Plausable to say the least. So it got me wondering, if they rented their fans because they don't want too many of their peeps getting outside the gates, what are the chances that they rented the team also?
possible, but its probably more like out right purchased. i dont mean that in a snarky way. i mean "purchased" their own, not some chinese. they might not want to let the average farm worker "fan" out the gate to see what is really going on in the world when that fan has nothing but misery to go back to. but purchase the best athletes and give them a life style the average north korean cant even afford to dream about, and believing the sham and going back will be a hell of a lot easier. not to mention, if you are treated like royalty, and have the threat of what could happen to your family hanging over your head if you dont keep up the happy face (which i can see happening), its a lot easier to go home and tell everyone how much better your hell hole is than the rest of the world and how the crazy little bastard that runs it is the best thing since sliced bread. not that any of them know what sliced bread is like. thats reserved for the dear leader.
yes that is the rumor. Guess there is no real way to verify unless you try and ask them. As the story goes, they "rented" these poor china fans because there is now a total lock-down on the entire North Korean population. No one is allowed to leave the country (guess the soccer team is exempt.)
If i were a North Korean in South Africa right now on the PRK team, and i were single, and had no family, i would make sure i got "lost" in South Africa and found my way to France or England, or the US.
but that comes back to what i said about possible (probable) threats to what will happen to families. oh, i just read "no family". but still, parents, grandparents, siblings. unless they have all already starved to death, chances are, they will be looking at hard labor (at the least) if you get "lost".
I was just looking into NK @ the Olympics after seeing that they had a team in the world cup (I didn't realize they had a team for that before today). For the Olympics, per wiki, the athletes stay in the olympic village but in an isolated area within and they aren't allowed to sightsee in the host country or interact with the other athletes. They march in the opening ceremony and watch the closing ceremony and compete in their events. Nothing more. Probably similar conditions apply for the soccer teams. Most likely only play in their games and then are kept under wraps the rest of the time.
