Five DPRK Players Fail Drug Tests

The saga of the DPRK’s women’s World Cup team goes on.

After blaming lightning strikes for the team’s loss to the USA during the round-robin phase of the tournament, the North Korean side has found itself in the midst of soccer’s largest doping scandal since Diego Maradona. According to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, five players from the squad were tested and found to have taken steroids.

Comment on Chosun Ilbo article by Marcus Noland

[7 April, Marcus Noland commented on the Chosun Ilbo article  brought for consideration by Chris Nelson.]

For what it’s worth, the numbers reported in the Chosun Ilbo story are in the same ballpark that Steph and I got in our two surveys. These numbers create consternation among elements of the WFP, the “humanitarian community,” and the more pro-engagement parts of say the State Department. I say let’s be honest with ourselves. Here are a few paragraphs from our book:

In both the China-based and South Korea-based surveys, an astonishing share of respondents, roughly half of those surveyed, revealed that they were unaware of the long-standing, large-scale program (table 3.1). Moreover, among respondents who indicated knowledge of the effort, 33 percent of the South Korea survey respondents and only 4 percent of the China survey respondents believed that they had been recipients. Looking only at urban residents (those on the agricultural cooperatives would have been less likely to receive aid), only 3 percent in the China survey and 14 percent of the later, South Korea survey reported being recipients.