The DPRK in the Penalty Box

This sounds like as convenient a measure to take against Pyongyang as possible – put the DPRK in the penalty box.

…either ban broadcasts of the 2010 World Cup tournament in North Korea, or even better, ban North Korea’s side from participation in the tournament due to start next month. There is precedent for this: Yugoslavia was barred from participating in the 1994 World Cup because of ongoing United Nations sanctions. It’s also a sanction that would not benefit any internal hardliners responsible for the Cheonan.

Charli Carpenter adds, that sports sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa. Still, the DPRK is even more authoritarian, jingoistic, and isolated than Yugoslavia ever aspired to be. I’m not sure sanctions wouldn’t endear the soccer team more to the North Korean people, and cause them to resent the outside world even more.


Filed under: Academia, Korea, Sports Tagged: charli carpenter, cheonan, daniel drezner, dprk, north korea, sanctions, world cup 2010