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The South Korean national football team prepares to board a plane bound for Pyongyang in Beijing on Oct. 14

No matter how passionately the Red Devils cheer for the South Korean football team, their dream won’t come true this time around — and the game wasn’t covered by the media or even broadcast live.

The team played its North Korean counterparts on the afternoon of Oct. 15 at Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang, in the second Asian qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It was the two teams’ first match in Pyongyang in 29 years, the last time being Oct. 22, 1990.

Professional baseball is the most popular spectator sport in South Korea, but if we narrow the focus to the international stage, no sport captures as much attention as men’s football, particularly the World Cup. Koreans are riveted on World Cup football, just like the citizens of most of the world. That’s why it’s so astounding to think there won’t be a live broadcast of the game. It’s like throwing salt in the wounds of 71 years of division.

North Korea’s official policy is to treat South Korea the same as other countries, in accordance with FIFA policy. That means complying with international and domestic regulations, without taking into account the unique nature of inter-Korean relations. There wasn’t a live broadcast of the qualifying round against Lebanon that was played in Pyongyang on Sept. 5, either. A recording of the game was broadcast on Korean Central Television the next day, part of North Korea’s general practice of not doing live broadcasts of sporting events.

Pyongyang’s policy is not in violation of international rules. The broadcast rights for the final Asian qualifying rounds for the World Cup belong to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), but the host country retains the rights to the first and second qualifying rounds.

It’s hard to believe that North Korea didn’t take inter-Korean relations into account when deciding how to handle the Pyongyang game. While sending invitations to the 55 members of the South Korean delegation (including 25 athletes) via the South Korea Football Association on Oct. 7, the North Korean football association said that the issue of broadcasting live and reporting on the scene was “outside its authority” and “a matter for [inter-Korean] authorities to deliberate.” In other words, those matters had to be decided by the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea, under North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

When South Korean officials used the joint liaison office at the Kaesong Industrial Complex to ask for accommodations in regard to the live broadcast and on-scene reporting, North Korea made no response to the request. In negotiations arranged by a Japanese broker, South Korea’s three terrestrial broadcasters apparently came close to an agreement with lower-level North Korean officials about carrying a live broadcast in exchange for a steep fee. But as rumor has it, higher officials shot the idea down.

Such behavior appears related to North Korea’s strident criticism of South Korea for engaging in joint military exercises with the US and acquiring cutting-edge weaponry from Washington. It also appears in line with the pressure the North has exerted on South Korean President Moon Jae-in to change certain policies. North Korea’s chilly attitude toward the Pyongyang match may be aimed at putting Moon’s feet to the fire and galvanizing support in South Korea for overcoming the ongoing deadlock in North Korea’s negotiations with the US.

But North Korea’s refusal to allow a live broadcast of the World Cup qualifying match is more likely to cause South Koreans who’d hoped that Kim Jong-un might be different (from his predecessors) to conclude that he’s the same after all. Whether intended by North Korea or not, the politicization of the World Cup football match could reinforce negative sentiment toward the North among the South Korean public, undermining support for the Moon administration’s policy of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation.

North Korean athletes are scheduled to visit South Korea for a game on June 4, 2020; we hope that the painful memories of today will be a learning experience for both South and North Korea. They need to be if we’re to pave the way toward South and North Korea jointly hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics, as Moon and Kim have pledged.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]