North Korean state TV airs its first EVER South Korea football match

North Korean state TV airs its first EVER South Korea football match – the Seoul side’s 4-1 drubbing by Brazil

North Korean state media broadcasted South Korea’s World Cup campaign this week for the first time.

Domestic audiences could watch the last-16 match on Wednesday, two days after it took place at the Stadium 974 in Doha where Brazil beat the Republic Of Korea (ROK) national team 4-1. 

The programme even named the ROK players at the start of the match, which is unusual given that the country tends not to show any games where a South Korean national is playing. 

Korean Central Television (KCTV) is led by the state of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

North Korean state media broadcasted South Korea’s World Cup campaign to its audiences this week for the first time. Pictured: South Korea’s players before the game on Monday

The broadcaster has shown the majority of this year’s World Cup games, but South Korea’s matches remained absent until the unusual broadcast of Monday’s game on Wednesday

The channel tends to broadcast international sporting events, which is a rare occasion for citizens who can watch what is happening in the rest of the world. 

The broadcaster has so far shown the majority of this year’s World Cup games, but South Korea’s matches remained absent until Wednesday. 

Stimson Center fellow Martyn Williams said that KCTV have been actively showing all other games, despite a day or two’s lag.    

‘It’s obviously not by chance that the one South Korean game shown is the one that put them out of the World Cup.

‘It just shows pettiness, but that’s unfortunately something that is not unusual,’ he told NK News.

It was an unusual broadcasting on Wednesday by KCTV as domestic viewers could see uncensored adverts that were shown in Stadium 974. Pictured: Brazil’s Neymar during the last-16 World Cup clash against South Korea

KCTV broadcasts international sporting events, which is a rare occasion when citizens can watch what is happening in the rest of the world. Pictured: South Korea’s Paik Seung-ho celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal

Up until now much of South Korean and Japanese football matches were not shown, including those at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups. 

Also unusual during Monday’s game was the fact that advertisements were not censored by the state, meaning that North Korean viewers could see adverts for Coca-Cola and other western consumer brands. 

According to FIFA, the DPRK shows a feed from South Korean networks whose logos were blurred out back in 2014 for the Brazil World Cup.

At the start of the tournament this year, KCTV blurred out the outside broadcaster’s logo and graphics, but during recent matches there has been no effort made to censor them out.

Source: Read Full Article