North Korea in World Cup 2014 Final? Nope, Youtube Video is a Fake News Report

A North Korean news report about the country being in the World Cup playoff round is a fake.
North Korea in World Cup 2014 Final? Nope, Youtube Video is a Fake News Report
(Youtube screenshot)
7/13/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

A North Korean news report about the country being in the World Cup playoff round is a fake.

The “report,” which was uploaded to Youtube on July 11, 2014, claims that North Korea beat Japan 7-0, USA 4-0, and China 2-0, and is set to play Portugal in the knockout round.

Old soccer game footage appears to have been used, most noticeably a shot of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

There is also a shot of Brazilian fans cheering current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a large screen.

Yahoo Sports has since pointed out that this video is a parody and not North Korean propaganda, citing Reddit user “crnprdian“ that the broadcast anchor’s voice doesn’t sync with her lips, and is not speaking in a North Korean dialect.

Also, Hollywood Reporter has pointed out that the reclusive Asian country does air delayed and heavily censored South Korean broadcasts of the games, which means that the North Koreans do know some of the results in the Brazil tournament.

North Korea did qualify for the World Cup in 1966, where they scored a famous 1-0 victory over Italy before losing to Portual 5-3 in the knockout stage, and in 2010, where they lost all their group stage matches to Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast.

Larry Ong is a New York-based journalist with Epoch Times. He writes about China and Hong Kong. He is also a graduate of the National University of Singapore, where he read history.
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