{"id":69995,"date":"2026-06-30T17:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/69995\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:32:07","slug":"north-koreas-world-cup-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/69995\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea’s World Cup: The Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nation led by Kim Jong-un broadcasts parts of the tournament without any rights, concealing information it doesn’t want its citizens to know.<\/p>\n

30 june 2026 (modifica alle 17:18) – HOUSTON (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Italian version<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

North Korea has taken sports counter-factuals to an extreme. Reports suggest they are broadcasting an alternative World Cup where their Southern neighbours haven’t even landed in America, effectively blacked out and cut off. This is perhaps predictable. However, the X account “Alerta Mundial” has reported that Kim Jong Un is stealing signals from foreign satellites to broadcast the matches to the entire population.<\/p>\n

Edits\u2014 \u00a0<\/p>\n

State-run Korean Central Television does not hold the rights to the tournament, meaning it theoretically cannot broadcast even a minute of any match. However, images circulating on X show North Korean script dominating the screen, displaying matches featuring Ivory Coast, Sweden, and Tunisia. It appears Kim’s government is utilising foreign satellite networks, such as China’s, to allow its citizens to watch the games. This practice was also observed in 2022 during the Qatar World Cup, with Champions League fixtures, and notably with the Women’s Under-20 World Cup, which North Korea actually won. Matches from the current World Cup are broadcast with a delay, often hours or even days late, and undergo a series of “edits” and manipulations. This allows the government to modify, delete, or even add specific details. South Korea, for instance, naturally does not exist in these broadcasts. Sanctions? They’re virtually impossible to impose, as Kim and his regime are already excluded from the global market.<\/p>\n

THE 2010 INCIDENT\u2014 \u00a0<\/p>\n

This is not the first time North Korea has distorted sporting reality. For the people of Pyongyang, the 2010 World Cup was won by Ronaldo’s Portugal, not Spain. This was because the national team, who had qualified after a 44-year absence, had been beaten 7-0 by the Portuguese in the group stage. Yet, in the broadcast, the North Koreans were shown conceding only three goals, perhaps even fewer \u2013 a humiliation erased. State television broadcast the entire match against Brazil, which ended in a 2-1 defeat, but for the Portuguese match, they cut out most of the goals. They even altered a quote from CR7 to make the people believe that the North Koreans were a great team with a great coach. It is reported that upon their return home, the squad was subjected to a six-hour public criticism session in front of hundreds of people, including citizens and institutional members. Journalist Alvaro Leite, who had been on an organised trip to North Korea, reported on Portugal’s victory. One wonders who they will be talking about this year.<\/p>\n

This article was originally written in Italian by La Gazzetta dello Sport editor. The English version has been generated using AI translation tools. If you notice any translation errors or have suggestions, please contact us at iniziativegazzetta@rcs.it<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The nation led by Kim Jong-un broadcasts parts of the tournament without any rights, concealing information it doesn’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30030,941,38291,3337,4178,34179,7310,38292,38296,26526,38293,38297,17002,38298,38299,38300,38301,38302,38288,3046,38303,23765,4871,38304,38305,9581,38294,5207,18915,1764,1516,141,31,33028,38290,4174,34,24190,4275,4276,38295,6920,5221,12340,3706,38289,3672,494,8555,20597,4575,207,5968],"class_list":["post-69995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-an","tag-and","tag-any","tag-are","tag-as","tag-been","tag-broadcast","tag-broadcast-the","tag-broadcasts","tag-by","tag-citizens","tag-citizens-to","tag-cup","tag-cut","tag-does","tag-does-not","tag-edits","tag-entire","tag-even","tag-for","tag-for-the","tag-foreign","tag-from","tag-from-the","tag-goals","tag-government","tag-had","tag-has","tag-is","tag-it","tag-kim","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-match","tag-matches","tag-north","tag-north-korea","tag-not","tag-of","tag-on","tag-or","tag-people","tag-reported","tag-that","tag-the","tag-they","tag-this","tag-to","tag-was","tag-who","tag-with","tag-world","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}