The historic conciliatory game - 9 September, 2002 - News

Soccer unites North and South Koreas

The soccer match between the national squads of North and South Koreas in Seoul ended up with a symbolic score – 0:0. This was the first game between the teams of the two countries after the long break of more than ten years. The match has already been called as the “historic game.” Friendship won, so to speak.

Friendship won indeed. Soccer united the two Koreas! We hope that this single patriotic spirit would continue in the future for really long. Much longer than 90 minutes of the game.

The BBC reported, the tickets had been sold out long before the day of the match. The stadium was packed with 60 thousand people. There was not even a small space. The score of the game was not relevant for the football players of the two countries. The major objective that they were trying to achieve was to make North and South Koreas get closer to each other. They were playing hard, trying to make a path to future sports competitions. The teams were coming out on the soccer field under the common flag, which depicted the unified Korean peninsula on it. Instead of singing the national anthems of the countries, the teams were singing a Korean folk song. Indeed, the unification of North and South Koreas is the will of the Korean nation. Yet, the politicians of the countries fail to listen to that will.

The relations between South and North Koreas have been getting warmer recently. After the World Cup 2002 was over, Pyongyang officially congratulated Seoul with the honorable fourth place. The BBC said that the unification process had been suspended in 2002. Nevertheless, the Pyongyang government started developing their links with other countries. Pyongyang conducted negotiations with Seoul, Moscow, and Tokyo.

RIA Novosti informed, the arrival of the North Korean team in Seoul coincided with other important event in Korea’s sports life. This event was the ceremony of lighting the torches of Asian countries. The torches will be delivered to the inter-Korean borderline by the relay-race. This is another symbolic gesture of the unification.

AFP photo

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov