hankyoreh

The Northerners are acting irrationally about a preliminary match between North and South Korea scheduled for March 24 in Pyongyang. The match is being held in advance of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which is to take place in South Africa. Following the breakdown of the working-level planning meeting yesterday in Gaeseong (Kaesong), the Korean Football Association, or KFA, has decided to ask the Federation Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, to intervene. The match could end up being played in a third country, or it is even within the realm of possibility that the match could be declared a forfeit by North Korea’s national team.

The North insists the “Korean Peninsula Flag” (bandogi) be flown and the traditional Korean song “Arirang” be played at the start of the game, instead of the official flag and anthem of South Korea, but this is a demand that goes against FIFA regulations. The rules clearly say that the flag of the visiting nation must also be flown at the game venue, and that after a team enters the field its national anthem is to be played. The Northerners say that raising the Taegeukgi (the South Korean flag) and playing the South Korean anthem in the North is unprecedented, and that it goes against the spirit of the June 15 Joint Declaration. The match in question is officially sanctioned by FIFA and between national teams, not some inter-Korean friendly, and the North is trying to apply the wrong standards. This is thinking that belongs to a frog in a well.

It is an even bigger problem if the North is rejecting the South’s official flag and anthem for political reasons, for example if it is worried about the effect they would have on the Northern population. Inter-Korean relations have today progressed to the point where thousands of Southerners are staying in the North on a regular basis and the South’s president travels from Seoul to Pyongyang by automobile. We are at the point where you cannot pretend what is, is not. The official North Korean flag and anthem were part of a match between North and South held in Jeonju in August 2005, during the East Asian Games. In the years since, both Koreas have participated in sporting events held in the South, including at the Asian Games, Universiade and the World Championships in Athletics. Relations between North and South have grown more mature as one psychological wall after another is removed.

It is undesirable for everyone to have North and South unable to agree on the procedures for a football match and therefore require a decision by FIFA. The best way to resolve the impasse would be for the North to say that it will hold the match in accordance with FIFA regulations. It would then look all the better if, on the premise that the South’s flag and anthem are used, fans from both sides were able to cheer their teams on by waving the peninsula flag and singing Arirang.

When the New York Philharmonic Orchestra played in Pyongyang earlier this week, it played the U.S. national anthem and it did so while North Korean broadcasting showed the concert live. It is contradicting itself with its own logic if the North thinks it is alright for regular North Koreans to hear the Star Spangled Banner but not the Aegeukga, the national anthem of South Korea. We would hope to see the North look at this with a wider perspective and assume a more flexible approach.



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