The North Korean leader must be an Arsenal fan.
Kim Jong-un has reportedly banned Tottenham Hotspur matches from being broadcast in North Korea.
According to NDTV, the despot’s regime insists no games involving teams with players from their leader’s hated neighbours – South Korea – are broadcast there.
Currently, there are three South Korean players plying their trade in England’s top flight – Son Heung-Min at Spurs, Kim Ji-Soo at Brentford and Hwang Hee-Chan at Wolves.
The Spurs captain is something of a national hero in South Korea, but fans of the player and the team living in North Korea won’t be able to watch them take on Manchester United this evening.
Premier League matches that don’t feature any South Korean talent are allowed to be broadcast in the hermit nation, albeit with a four-month delay.
The games are also shortened from 90 minutes to 60 and broadcast before news bulletins.
US-based think tank, Stimson Center’s 38 North project, has shed new light on the country’s extreme censorship rules.
The research revealed that North Korean television schedules are rife with propaganda, but sports is ‘one of the few moments each day when state TV is not trying to send an overt or underlying message to its viewers’.
Martyn Williams, who worked on the findings, said: “There wasn’t really any intention to the research except that we thought it was interesting. We just saw a lot of football on KCTV. It’s the main international sport they broadcast.
Social media users poked fun at the news with many stating that the North Korean dictator had inadvertently carried out a good deed for the fans who otherwise would have had to endure the sorry performances dished out by Ange Postecoglou’s side in recent weeks.
“It’s because Kim thinks his people have suffered enough,” said one X user, while another added: “Should be banned here too the way Spurs are playing.”
Another wrote” “Given Spurs’ miserable recent performances, notably against mighty Tamworth, he’s doing the people a favour!”
The North London side have endured a terrible run of form which culminated in last weekend’s FA Cup fourth round defeat against Aston Villa.
Spurs had exited the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage just three days earlier after they were pilloried for capitulating against Liverpool, surrendering a one-goal advantage from the first leg and limping to a 4-0 defeat.
Hopes of a top four finish and a return to Europe’s top tier competition evaporated long before the turn of the year and with Spurs currently languishing in 14th place there is little left to play for on the domestic front.
