SEOUL — The advance of South Korea's soccer team to the semifinals of the World Cup before its loss Tuesday to Germany provided more than just a rousing good time for fans. It also gave North Korea watchers another window into the isolated Communist regime's mood, mentality and motivation.
As usual, the North Korean government walked a fine line when depicting the outside world to its isolated people, say analysts who make their living poring over the regime's every expression and gesture.
The coverage of South Korea's surprising ascent to the ranks of the top four teams suggested a certain shared pride in what fellow Koreans have accomplished against some of the greatest soccer powers.
Socialist festival--An article in Thursday's Section A incorrectly stated when North Korea held a World Socialist Youth Festival. It was 1989.
By airing on Sunday an edited, hourlong version of South Korea's victory last week over Italy--a lengthy broadcast by North Korean standards and narrated, analysts say, quite evenhandedly--the Communist regime sought to stress the common bond.
"We've got the same faces," said Moon Chung In, a political science professor here with Yonsei University. "Ultimately blood is thicker than water."
On the political level, some add, the regime may also want to get a bit closer to South Korea, given the harder line and "axis of evil" accusations the North has faced from Washington since Sept. 11.
At one point during the broadcast, a North Korean commentator even sided openly with the South Korean team after Italian player Francesco Totti was penalized for faking an injury. "The referee is correct," he said.
The North's decision to air the Italy match was also significant in a nation where symbolism and historical precedent are extremely important. Not only did it show an Asian power beating a Western power whose roots go back millenniums, analysts say, but it also created a historical tie with North Korea's own surprising defeat of Italy in the 1966 World Cup.
In something of a dig, however, there also was a subtle message that it took the southern cousins 36 years to match the North's own accomplishment, analysts say.
South Korea refused to televise the Communist nation's World Cup triumph.
"In 1966 we were in the peak of the Cold War," said Suh Dong Man, a political science professor with South Korea's Sangji University. "Under President Park Chung Hee, it was out of the question."
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