North Korea Emerges
Football on the Korean peninsula wasn't exclusively confined to the southern half of the 38th parallel. Since 1945, North Korea had been a member of FIFA, however the communist country had been relatively uninvolved in international football affairs. That changed in 1963 when a North Korean team entered the little-known Games of the New Emerging Forces tournament (GANEFO) held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Although little is known of this tournament, Egypt emerged victorious with North Korea finishing as runners-up. The following year, North Korea hosted the GANEFO tournament in Pyongyang and emerged victorious, defeating China in the final.
North Korea were ready to enter the organized international football world, and in 1964 they took part in qualifiers for the same Tokyo Olympics tournament the South Koreans were so desperate to qualify for. After defeating Burma and Thailand to secure their place in Japan, the North Koreans promptly withdrew from the tournament before it got underway.
Victory in the 1965 GANEFO tournament held in Cambodia, preceded qualifying for the 1966 World Cup. The normal group stage qualification process was disrupted by a mass boycott of sixteen nations over FIFA's decision only to award one overall qualifying place for Asia, Africa and Oceania. North Korea and Australia were the only non-boycotting federations, so the qualifier would be decided on a two-legged basis between the two countries. Both matches were played in Phnom Penh, venue for the GANEFO tournament they triumphed in the previous year, due to the lack of diplomatic relations between both countries. North Korea easily earned qualification by a considerable margin, beating Australia first 6-1 and then 3-1 to secure an emphatic aggregate scoreline. The North Koreans were going to England.
Similar problems emerged through the lack of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and North Korea, with the British government being reluctant to issue entry visas to the Korean athletes or to recognize them as an official country in any shape or form. Eventually it was decided that North Korea, as members of FIFA and having qualified fairly under FIFA rules, couldn't be justifiably excluded from the tournament, so the British government relented, though put strict controls on the amount of official North Korean material that could be presented and displayed whilst in the United Kingdom.
The draw for the tournament on 6th January 1966 threw North Korea into a group with 1960 European Champions USSR, 1962 World Cup semifinalists Chile and two-time World Champions Italy – with only two sides qualifying from the group, it would have been a formidable task for any national side, let alone one making its debut at the highest level of international football.
As it was, the North Koreans arrived at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough on the evening of 12th July to face the USSR and crashed to a 3-0 defeat. Three days later North Korea faced Chile at the same stadium. A Park Seung-jin goal two minutes from time secured a 1-1 draw for the North Koreans, and gave them a slim chance of making it to the next round. The small matter of achieving a victory over the might of Italy was all that stood between them and a quarterfinal slot. The Middlesbrough public turned up on the 19th of July to support the North Koreans, and the international football world was stunned when Park Doo-ik netted a first-half winner to eliminate the highly-fancied Italians and send the North Koreans into the next round.
So whilst the Italians returned home to a barrage of rotten fruit and choice expletives, the North Koreans lined up on the 23rd July against Portugal at Goodison Park, Liverpool. 3,000 Middlesbrough supporters made the journey Merseyside to support the Koreans, and amazingly North Korea found themselves 3-0 up after only twenty-four minutes. Portugal, inspired by the sublime skills of Eusebio, fought back and emerged victorious 5-3, with Eusebio scoring four and laying on the fifth. The dream was over, but the North Koreans were by no means embarrassed or defeated. England eventually won the tournament, but North Korea, and football, were equal victors.
