NORTH KOREA: NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM DETAINED AND SCHEDULED FOR EXECUTION AFTER LOSS TO SOUTH KOREA
October 4, 2014: the official newspaper of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Rodong Sinmun, reported that Kim Jong-un had the entire North Korean soccer team jailed after enduring a humiliating 1-0 loss to their South Korean rivals on 2 October. This makes for the first time North Korea has faced South Korea in the Asian Games since 1978.
After the game, the athletes were escorted to a waiting bus where they were then transferred to a maximum security North Korean prison.
Rodong Sinmun shamed the team in a front page article, publishing photographs of the players along with a headline which read, “The Men Who Failed Us”. Later in the piece they go onto describe the team’s efforts as disgraceful, and fully endorsed the execution of their soccer players.
Kim Jong-un has yet to officially comment on the team’s loss, but insiders close to the dictator indicate he’s beyond angry, and fully intends to publicly execute the men who lost to their South Korean rivals.
This isn’t the first time North Korea has faced charges of too harshly chastising their athletes, either. In 2010, FIFA probed North Korean officials after claims were made that their football team had been severely tortured after losing all three games of the World Cup. (Sources: nationalreport.net, 04/10/2014)
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