North Korea plays Japan tonight for a chance to play in the next World Cup. It appears North Korea will have a number of people who live in Japan rooting for them.
Lee Jae-sul was born and raised in Tokyo but like thousands of Koreans living in Japan, he’s hoping North Korea (news – web sites) will beat Japan in a World Cup soccer qualifying match on Wednesday.
Lee, 48, is one of 150,000 Korean residents of Japan with allegiance to communist North Korea.
North Korea supporters account for a quarter of all Koreans in Japan, many of whom are descendants of students and workers who came, or were forcibly brought to Japan, while Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945.
“Of course I will support the North Korean team because since my elementary school days I have received an ethnic and ideological education sympathetic to the North,” said Lee.
Like many North Korean loyalists, Lee attended a school run by a pro-Pyongyang residents’ group, where he was taught to revere the communist state and its leaders, whose portraits hang on classroom walls.
Hard to believe there are Kim Jong Il portraits hanging up in Japanese classrooms. If they revere North Korea so much then why don’t they go live there? It is probably because many of the Nork loyalists in Japan are part of the Japanese underworld and are making a lot money with the illegal activities they are conducting which is facilitated by the North Korean regime.
Interestingly enough North Korea has two Koreans living in Japan who play in the J-League on their roster.
Adding spice to Wednesday’s match for Korean residents, two J-League pros from the pro-Pyongyang community have been tapped for the North Korean side.
“To beat Japan and win a World Cup berth has been my dream. I’m really excited,” 22-year-old Sanfrecce Hiroshima midfielder Ri Han-jae told a news conference after being named to the team.
Ri will be joined by Nagoya Grampus Eight midfielder An Yong-hak, 26, who has said he was honored but a bit anxious about playing with compatriots from a country about which he knows little.
“As a player from Japan, I can’t help but feel nervous,” he said in a recent interview with the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
“I stand out from the rest of the team,” added An, whose hair has been trimmed to fit with his closely cropped team mates.
I can’t figure out why these two players would play on the North Korean team other than they couldn’t make the Japanese team so this was their best second option to get to play at an international level. Maybe they just needed a free haircut?
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