For North Korean Refugees, Little to Cheer About in the World Cup

With the World Cup on, little pockets of immigrant New York will be stopping for hours at a time to watch their homelands compete. They will gather in groups large and small, in ethnic restaurants and sports bars, in Little Brazil in Midtown and Little Ghana in the Bronx.

But there is one team that will not be cheered by New York revelers, one team without local fans planning raffles or mixing special drinks. The team represents an international pariah, a closed-off dictatorship and the lowest-ranked country in the tournament this year: North Korea.

The North Korean soccer team qualified for the World Cup for the first time in more than four decades, but the historic achievement has failed to arouse much passion among the soccer intelligentsia or among fans looking for an underdog to root for. Even the most hard-core soccer zealots struggle to name the North Korean lineup, and the country’s expatriate community is so small that it could hardly field its own soccer scrimmage.

Federal officials say North Koreans who come to the United States fall into different categories: those who are refugees and those with other visas.

The number of North Korean with refugee status who came to New York State in the last fiscal year is four. The total number that has been resettled in the state is 18. Federal officials declined to say how many refugees were in New York City because the number is so small that they could be tracked down by North Korean officials or their proxies.

In the United States, there are 99 North Korean refugees, the State Department said. More North Korean immigrants have received visas to come to the United States, but their ranks are still sparse — only 1,293 since 1992. There are perhaps several hundred living in the city illegally, advocates say. The largest group may be ethnic North Koreans who hail from the Chinese side of the mountainous border, said Steven Choi, an advocate for Korean immigrants.

But the community, if it can be called that, is not one to gather in groups or draw attention to itself. New York City, home to Tibetan restaurants and Albanian social clubs, does not have a North Korean bar, or any other establishment dedicated to the community, according to Korean leaders.

The refugees are secretive and cautious when dealing with outsiders and with one another. They must always remain on guard for spies who could leak their name or their location to North Korean authorities, advocates say.

To leave North Korea is akin to an act of treason, and the regime has been known to crack down on the relatives in North Korea of those who manage to escape. Nerves have been especially frayed since South Korea accused the North of sinking one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors.

Some refugees are so distrustful of Kim Jong-il’s regime that they are ambivalent about the World Cup because the government uses sports to burnish the leader’s cult of personality, say those who know the small North Korean refugee community.

It all adds up to a meager local cheering section when North Korea begins play on Tuesday. How do you wave the flag when revealing your nationality is enough to raise fears of arrest?

Curious would-be North fans searching for company could head to the Save North Korean Refugees group, on Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side.

But there, at the corner of 96th Street, they will find no signs of a North Korean enclave. Instead, at the address listed on the group’s Web site, there is only a cluttered liquor store with a poster of the rapper Fabolous out front and a display advertising Moët champagne in the window. There is a wide selection of kosher wine, but no North Korean soccer posters, or even a television to watch the match.

Henry Kim, the owner of Roma Wine and Liquor and the founder of the refugee advocacy group, was born in North Korea but moved to the South during the war. He did not know about the soccer match but, when informed, said he would watch it at home with his wife.

Perhaps soccer fans would be better off visiting the only official North Korean outpost in the city, the country’s mission to the United Nations in Midtown. The office is on the 13th floor of the sleek Diplomat Centre, 2 floors below the Syria’s consulate and 11 above Madagascar’s.

So, North Korean officials, are there any events scheduled for the game on Tuesday against Brazil?

“We do not have any programs planned,” said a man speaking by phone from the mission, who declined to provide his name or allow a reporter to visit the office. “We are so proud of ourselves that our team is participating in the World Cup.” Still, he added, “Officially, the programs are not scheduled.”

Unofficially, however, he said the consular staff would probably watch the game in the office. Visitors would not be invited.

Very few analysts, if any, have picked North Korea to upset Brazil, which has won the World Cup five times, or either of the other two countries in its bracket. But the team has played the role of Cinderella before; in 1966, the last time it played in the World Cup, the team beat Italy 1-0 in a stunning upset.

Sports can often transcend politics, allowing many Chinese immigrants to root for teams from the mainland and Taiwan alike. The enmity between North Korea and South Korea may be sharper, yet some South Korean immigrants said they expected to root for both Korean teams in the World Cup.

“They are my country’s enemy, but soccer is not politics,” said Jimmy Park, a South Korean immigrant who owns a deli in the Bronx. “I want both teams to win because it is the same country.”

Outside of New York, finding a North Korean viewing party does not get any easier.

Joseph, 18, is a North Korean refugee living in Virginia. He escaped the country, he said, by running alone across a frozen river at the Chinese border. His father had starved to death, his sister had vanished in China and his mother had abandoned him. He asked that his city and his last name not be published for fear of reprisals from the North Korean government.

Joseph grew up playing soccer — he has quick feet and good ball-handling skills — and he keeps a soccer ball in his bedroom. He said that he was very excited about the World Cup and that he would watch the North Korean game from the living room of his foster family’s two-story home.

Although he still has nightmares about North Korea, he said that the game would offer comforting reminders of home and that he would root hard for his underdog squad.

“Even though I left the country I still miss my country; that is my motherland,” he said. “The North Korean players are not the persons who made me leave the country.”