For the record, a) I don’t like mixing sports and politics (other than rooting against countries I dislike), b) I think there’s a tendency to overestimate the impact of sanctions on South Africa, and c) even IF I were were to grant that they had a considerable impact on South Africa, they’d have absolutely nil impact on North Korea.
Still, I like this piece in Newsweek, because it asked what I did yesterday, namely, if countries like apartheid South Africa get banned, how the hell does North Korea get in. Read it in its entirety, but here’s just a particularly good sample:
People who dismiss boycotts say they punish ordinary people rather than those in power, and furthermore, that cultural exchanges like orchestra tours and sports matches help dispel the sense of otherness that hangs over pariah peoples, allowing us to recognize our common humanity. Permit me to suggest that, in the case of North Korea and the World Cup, this is idiocy. Consider North Korea’s star player, the striker Jong Tae-se. A vocal and charismatic 20-something nicknamed “The People’s Wayne Rooney,” Jong has asserted that North Korea’s participation in the World Cup will do a great deal to demystify the country, win it respect and understanding abroad, and stoke pride at home. Indeed, Jong himself leads a totally normal and enjoyable-sounding life, by professional-athlete standards. He rolls in a silver Hummer, loves to snowboard, travels with an iPod and a Nintendo, and aspires to bed one of the Wondergirls—the Spice Girls of Seoul. He has also never lived in North Korea. He was born in Japan and continues to reside there, in the better-off Korean diaspora. He was the one who told the newspapers about his North Korean teammates’ quaint penchant for rock-paper-scissors. If Jong doesn’t represent the existence of Joe Ebrahim’s “dual life” in terms of North Korean society—in which a few nation-glorifying stars are allowed to pursue a capitalist lifestyle while most forage for food and dream about basic rights—I don’t know what does.
Great points about Jong (personal blog here) — yes, I know I’m supposed to understand the special circumstances and complex history of Japanese Koreans, and he certainly seems to be a colorful character, but I can’t skip over the fact that he’s a South Korean citizen who chose to play for the North, which isn’t exactly like choosing to play for Belgium.
(HT to Yuna)
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Is he? I know Wikki-Wakka says he is, but they don’t really offer any evidence. They claim he is the son of second-generation (Zainichi) South Korean parents. But that suggests that his grandparents, despite their supposed origins from someplace in South Korea, migrated to Japan sometime after the ROK citizenship system was set up after 1948 – which seems unlikely.
dont mean to diss all the north korean people but the fact of the matter is that nobody really cares about north korea or north koreans bro. they’re not celebrity victims like the africans were and still are. even the tibetans are higher on the victim politics totem pole and they even have richard gere on their side but look at what good that has done them. if you’re in asia and follow k-politics and issues closely you can kinda lose perspective of the bigger picture that most people simply dont care. thats probly why they have to push the whole military threat thing (axis of evil) to make NK relevant and even just register on people’s radar.
I don’t believe he is a South Korean citizen.
I understand he was born in Japan by South Korean parents, but did that automatically give him South Korean citizenship.
and if it did, why did he parents choose to send him to a “North Korean” school in Japan and how did he manage to also get a North Korean passport. South Korea currently still does not let “its citizens” have two passports for two different countries – and definately NOT for North Korea.
If he holds South Korean citizenship, why is he allowed to travel to and from North Korea freely, and play on the North’s Team, without South Korea arresting him or cancelling his citizenship.
Too confusing for me?
From the Dong-A Ilbo:
http://news.donga.com/3//20100617/29165038/1
Say what you will, I think attributing the end of apartheid to liberal guilt misses the mark. Broadening a coalition of progressives to include closet American racists needed to be heavy on ideological battery full of images of real humanity instead of corporate slaves in Africa. But, this is all happening after the fact, when South Africa is democratic. And, if FIFA, like the IOC, wants to further this message, that sports can be an alternative to war for xenophobes, that’s their cross to bear. If the DPRK has joined this corporate spectacle, then clearly it’s not communist, just tyrannical.
Did he though? It’s the sins of the father that carries on. His father/or grandfather *chose* to go/remain in Japan. They chose to keep their identity separate from the Japanese. They sent their kids to weirdo school – I’m sure crazy solidarity can flourish as they were regarded as freaky second class citizens.
As a South Korean just finding out about the plight of Zainichis I feel more embarrassed and sorry that our government didn’t do more for the Koreans in Japan, or to welcome them back …a surprise because I usually think that if someone chooses to go settle somewhere permanently they should just blend in and that the country of origin has neither responsibility nor rights to meddle in the business of the ensuing diaspora(and I hate that word).
I guess North Korea had their own (monetary) evil reasons to give them the initial support system, and Jong Taese is just an unfortunate by-product of all this. His tears flow mostly from loving his parents who made the wrong choice for him (he just doesn’t know it yet) extended to a confucian notion of father=country, just as the woman director of the film “Sona the other myself” had for her late father who had sent her brothers to North Korea.
And I’m an expert on tears, as some know.
I read an interview with this Jong Tae-se dude on a local magazine here: he sounds like an egotistical, self-serving douchebag.
Sorry for being the usual asshole but i think the main reason why the kid plays for the Norks and keeps some ties to the country, despite his comfy life in Japan is that they provided him with a chance to make it to the World Cup. In exchange the Norks get a semi-competent player (at least somebody properly fed), i don’t think there’s really anything more than this.
And from what i’ve seen the kid seems to thrive on the attention he gets by being the outsider in the Norks team
@ JD # 2: agreed 110%
I personally think he’s an idiot but I guess it’s his right to choose. In San Francisco I was neighbors with a eccentric cross dressing gay dude who believed that Nazi Holocaust was fabricated by the US government to appease the Jewish bankers. My other neighbors and I just treated him like the village idiot.
Just an interjection here: you might think that after 1945 the flow of Koreans between Korea and Japan was all one way, but that would be wrong. Some number (don’t have figures to hand – Google them) of people from Jeju-do who survived the April 3, 1948 massacre on Jeju-do moved – not so much to mainland Korea – to Japan.
In Australia I met one Zainichi Korean who was by and large culturally Japanese but had spent some time in a Minjok Hakkyo and carried a DPRK passport (issued at one of the Chosen Soren offices in Japan – apparently they can fulfill some consular functions, interesting given that relations between the two lands are not normalized). Anyway she explained to me that her grandfather had moved to Japan before the founding of the Republic of Korea, but his hometown was somewhere in the south.
Therefore his citizenship was that of 조선, not 한국. Many of these pre August 15, 1948 Koreans residing in Japan refused to recognize/legitimize the separation of 조선 into two nations. These people, almost by default, ended up with passports/citizenship of 조선인민민주주의공화국 (DPRK).
So yes, some were Commies, but by no means all.
Consider the perspective of some of these Koreans in Japan. As a persecuted minority, denied rights of citizenship and economic opportunities, its understandable that some would gravitate towards the most nationalistic, pro-Korean, anti-Japanese alternative between the two Koreas. Remember they will never have to live in North Korea, and may not even really care much what goes on there. They simply want to use N Korea to increase their clout in Japan. And N Korea needs them to gain remittances. Maybe someday some of these younger Korean Japanese will start to care about what really goes on in N Korea, and rethink their support.
very, very few people were “citizens” of Chosun; they were subjects of the Yi royal family. The Dynasty made some very tentative steps towards creating a modern citizenship regime in its last totterring days. I don’t recall how many people were issued the relevant papers, but it was an extremely small number. Japan took control before the project got very far, and the former subjects of the Yis became subjects of the Japanese Emperor after which their status was in constant flux depending on the ins and outs of Imperial Japan’s assimilation policies. After the war, of course, Japan revoked the standing of Koreans as Japanese nationals – and neither North or South Korea was willing to accept Koreans resident in Japan as citizens (with the tragic exception of the later repatriation of 90,000 Zainichi to Japan recounted in Morris-Suzuki’s book) – hence the purgatorial status of the Zainichi
Question: If countries like apartheid South Africa got banned (from intenational sprots events), how the hell does North Korea get in?
Answer: Countries like apartheid South Africa got banned from sports events because people IN South Africa (as well as many exiled South Africans) worked HARD for the international support they (eventually) got.
The ANC and other groups, as well as countless individuals IN South Africa, were prepared to make enormous sacrifices to bring human rights abuses to the world’s attention. Is there the same level of commitment to freedom amongst ordinary people in North Korea? It doesn’t look like it.
@ JD #2: You’ve got half a point – no-one cares about North Korea but that’s not only because they’re not “celebrity victims” but because it doesn’t really look like they themselves care enough to do anything about the situation they’re in.
Hundreds of thousands of South Africans were killed, maimed and tortured for the “international support” they eventually got…. the point is they kept on fighting, even when they didn’t have it. Don’t see that happening around here.
Are you inferring that from Laura Ling story you never read? I mean, exactly how do you expect are the ordinary people of North Korea to get a message out to Bob Geldof?
Sentiments like that are why soft-headed people everywhere gawk at totalitarian states with curious fascination while fiercely condemning states that are “merely” authoritarian. Clearly, the dictator who observes the first rule of a long reign — put all the reporters in camps — will eventually bequeath a misruled kingdom to one of his illegitimate sons.
Here is a long and in-depth interview with the director of the film 우리학교 (Our School) who also explains the situation with the nationality of the Zainichis like Jong Taese and his parents. Those who did not choose South Korean nationality in Japan 조선적 are effectively without nationality, but 정대세 is not one of them. Also if you actually get the North Korean nationality it would mean that you would not be able to re-enter Japan once you leave.
As I thought, the conflict that these people must have with their parents..It must be like 10 times more potent than the usual 2nd 3rd generation Korean immigrants abroad have with their parents.
You must log in to post a comment.