And why?
Well, we kept joking that if they lost, Kim Jong-Il would be ten kinds of pissed off and "re-purpose them." Probably making them work in some sort of munitions plant and most certainly would pack them off to the North Korean equivalent of a Siberian gulag.
And yet, I didn't post that at the time. As always, a day late and few thousand won short.
Newsweek reports that the North Korean soccer team was in fact publicly berated for their failure. And the coach has been made a construction worker or something.
"The players were then asked to step up in turn and publicly criticize manager Kim Jong-hun, who had apparently been singled out for punishment. He has been forced into a construction job because, it is thought, his team's failure is seen as a personal betrayal of Kim Jong-un, the son of current leader Kim Jong-il."
Sure. That's the official story. I think it went more like this:
"Um, but I don't know anything about construction? I coach soccer. Yes. Soccer. You know that game with a ball and no scoring and stuff like that.
"Oh, I see. I'm going to working as the ditch digger in Kusong. In Kusong!? Don't they manufacture deadly weapons there? What kinds of ditches? Hey, wait a minu.......Aaahhhhhrrrrghhhg."
