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<P>Apologies and a correction: "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" is by Kang (not Kim) Chol-hwan.<BR><BR></P>
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From: <I>"Michael Duffy" <mgduffy45@hotmail.com></I><BR>Reply-To: <I>Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws></I><BR>To: <I>koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</I><BR>Subject: <I>[KS] 1966 World Cup</I><BR>Date: <I>Thu, 11 May 2006 08:31:27 +0000</I><BR><BR>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">With the football World Cup just a month away, it seems a good time to raise a question which has intrigued me since I read Kim Chol-hwan's book ¡°The Aquariums of Pyongyang¡±. If you saw Daniel Gordon's 2002 documentary ¡°The Game of Their Lives¡±, about the 1966 North Korean World Cup team, you¡¯ll know that it apparently scotched the long-circulated rumor that the team members had been imprisoned on their return home for over-enthusiastic, not to say decadent, celebrations of their first round victory over Italy, which supposedly led to their 5-3 defeat by Portugal in the quarter- final, this after the Koreans had lead 3-0 early in the game. (On that same day, I was at Wembley Stadium in </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white;
COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">London</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> watching </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">England</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> winning a bad-tempered game against </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Argentina</SPAN></FONT><FONT size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">, and I remember the astonishment as the North Korean goals were announced over the PA.)<BR><BR><SPAN>?lt;/span>Kim Chol-hwan claims book to have seen Pak Sung-jin (the scorer of the first goal against </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman'">Portugal</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">) some time in the 1970s at Yodok concentration camp, where the player was admired for his ability to withstand the camp's vicious solitary confinement regime. According to Kim, all the team were interned except Pak Du-ik, the winning goalscorer against </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman'">Italy</SPAN></FONT><FONT size=2><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> and later the national coach, who had had stomach cramps after the game and skipped the celebration party.<BR><BR>The film did record that four members of the team had already died. As I recall, this fact was passed over lightly, with a comment about the hardness of life in </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">North Korea</SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=EN-US style="BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=2>. However, they would have been no older than their 50s, and the film shows the survivors as leading a somewhat comfortable existence. I've tried to get a comment on these points from Daniel Gordon, but with no success. Does anyone have any information that may solve the puzzle?</FONT><BR><BR><BR></SPAN></P>
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