North Korea News Podcast by NK News - North Korea’s World Cup miracle and the town that kept the memory alive

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

This week, the NK News Podcast presents a special episode on one of the most unlikely stories in World Cup history: North Korea’s extraordinary run at the 1966 tournament and the English town that embraced the team as its own. Sixty years after the DPRK stunned Italy and reached the quarterfinals, this episode revisits how […]

What a sensation. Italy and go down to North Korea. Whoever would have believed it. The World Cup has just wrapped. And as always, some of the tournament's most memorable stories came from the teams that were never supposed to get far. Cape Verde's underdog run was one of this year's highlights and the kind of story that reminds you

why the World Cup still matters. Every tournament has its giants, its favourites and its superstars. but often the moments that linger come from the teams that arrive as outsiders and suddenly make the world pay attention. Sixty years ago, another unlikely team arrived at the World Cup with almost no one expecting anything from them. Seeing the flag of our Republic flying on British soil was an extraordinary feeling.

The fact that our football was good enough to raise the Republic's flag in Britain gave us as professionals and players an unparalleled sense of national pride and honour. 60 years ago, North Korea stunned the soccer world by reaching the quarterfinals of the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Their victory over Italy is still remembered as one of the greatest shocks in the tournament's history. But the story of how they got there and why one working class English town adopted them as its own is just as remarkable. It is a story of boycotts, bureaucracy, Cold War politics, red shirts, local pride and the simple power of soccer. I'm Alana Hill and this is the NK News podcast. North Korea's journey to the 1966 World Cup began with controversy.

At the time, FIFA allocated just one qualifying place to teams from across Africa, Asia and Oceania. African nations protested and most withdrew from qualifying. South Africa was later again. expelled over apartheid, leaving only three teams in contention, Australia, South Korea and North Korea. But even arranging the final playoff was difficult. Few countries had diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. Eventually, Cambodia's king, Norodom Shianuk, a close friend of Kim Il-sung, stepped in to host the matches in Phnom Penh. South Korea withdrew, leaving North Korea to face Australia. Nicholas Bonner is the founder of Corioteurs, and

associate producer of The Game of Their Lives, the 2002 documentary about North Korea's 1966 World Cup team. I think it all sort of starts off. The complications started off, of course, with Africa pulling out the World Cup. North Koreans getting through probably the most sort of fascinating game was the one against Australia, which was held in Phnom Penin, Cambodia, where Sienuk divided the supporters, basically all Cambodians, 50% to support the North Korean team and 50% to support the Australians. And the North Koreans very cleverly just watched the Australians at practice and saw the way

they played as individuals very talented, but not as a team. So we were told by Pak Duik. And so they, and Richambong, their coach, would have said, okay, well, you know, we've got a chance here. And they, yeah, they certainly beat the Australians. Beat them and then some. North Korea won the first leg, 6-1 and the second 3-1. Australian player Johnny Warren later described the experience as like landing on another planet. The victory sent North Korea's national team to its first ever World Cup,

but qualifying was only at the beginning. The 1966 tournament was hosted by England. But the UK did not recognise North Korea. It had relations with South Korea. It had fought in the Korean War. And it was deeply concerned about how Washington and Seoul would react if the DPRK appeared on British soil as a normal participating country. Declassified foreign office documents show officials even considered refusing visas to the North Korean team.

But FIFA warned that if any qualifying team was denied entry, the tournament would be moved elsewhere. For England's Football Association, that would have been a disaster. So, London compromised. The team would be called North Korea, not the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. National anthems would only be played at the opening match and the final. Royal appearances would be limited to avoid any encounter between Queen Elizabeth II and the North Korean players. And the Foreign Office tried, unsuccessfully, to limit the display,

of North Korean symbols. I mean, the restrictions that were placed, you know, actually on that whole World Cup, that they said there'd be no, because of the foreign office, that no national anthems would be played until the victory. And they were actually sure North Korea would be kicked out within the first match.

And they probably got very worried when they got through to the quarter vinals. Also, the country would not be called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It would be known as North Korea. and flags, they almost wanted to stop the flags of the country being shown, but that was just, FIFA just said no to that. So the flags were flown.

For London, this was all about recognition, precedent and Cold War alignment. But in Mildsborough, where North Korea would play its group stage matches, the mood was different. Tash Warwick is a research associate at the University of Sheffield, who has written about Mildsborough and the 1966 World Cup. It seems to be more of a diplomatic concern, an issue whereby, you know, the British government are concerned about, you know, they have diplomatic relations with South Korea. They have strong reliance upon those connections to America, both of whom don't recognize the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It seems to one where one of governmental and civil servants having a crisis rather than the man on the street to, you know, even though these people representing DPRK are of the enemy, I don't think the footballers were ever seen as the enemy. And I think that's a really important distinction to make. That distinction between state politics and ordinary people would shape everything that followed. For the North Korean players, Britain was not an obvious place of women.

welcome. The Korean War had ended only 13 years earlier. Many of the players knew Britain mainly as one of the countries that had fought against them, and many people in Middlesbrough would have known someone who fought in Korea. Daniel Gordon produced and directed the game of their lives. There was this sort of fear of the unknown, but also this excitement of travel, and I think that any English guy that these Koreans would ever have seen beforehand would have been a soldier, and an enemy soldier. So I guess there was that feeling. But I think as soon as they, as soon as they got into contact with people, all of that faded. The North Koreans may have been entering unfamiliar territory, but they were not improvising. Months before the tournament, Pyongyang

sent a delegation to inspect Erson Park, the stadium where the team would play the USSR, Chile and Italy. They asked about the weather, the training facilities, the slope of the pitch, and even the position of the sun. I did think it was very interesting was they were leaving nothing to chance. So stuff that we would consider quite normal now, they did back then, which was like beyond anything, any preparation that anyone did. They had a team, I think there were about four people came over in March of 96. And they did. They did. They knew they were going to be based in Middlesbrough, so they did a tour of Middlesbrough,

and they found the pitch that they liked so that they wanted to train on and uses their base. But it couldn't be that way. It couldn't be the way that the pitch was laid out. It had to be turned round at 90 degrees because the way that the sun rose was going to be the same as the Middles were ground. They'd already thought of all of that kind of stuff.

You know, that's a sort of sports science and aggregate gains as, you know, Gains that we call it in England now, that sort of thinking didn't exist. In other words, this was not just a romantic underdog story. North Korea had prepared. Gordon says that was part of what fascinated him about the team. How a country devastated by war could reach the World Cup just 13 years later. The thing that really intrigued me most was how did a country that was completely flattened by the end of the war.

in 1953 and as one of the players said, you know, we didn't even have a ball to play with. How did they reach the World Cup, for one, 13 years later, and let alone play the way they did and have the success the way they did? The answer in part was discipline,

but another part of the story was where they landed. And I remember at the time there was lots of other children trying to get autographs, and I've got all their autographs, and I've kept that safe over the 30-odd years. and I'll just always keep it safe. As you just heard from the Middlesbrough fan featured in the game of their lives,

the town became an emotional centre of North Korea's World Cup story, a truly unexpected outcome. At first, locals were disappointed. They wanted Brazil or England or another glamorous team. Instead, they got what many considered the weakest team in the tournament,

a little-known squad from a country most people in Britain had never encountered. But the fit turned out to be almost perfect. Middlesbrough was a working-class town in England's northeast. It was shaped by iron, steel and chemical industries. It had its own sense of distance from London. Its soccer club had just been relegated to the third tier. And North Korea arrived wearing red,

the same colour as Middlesbrough Football Club. Well, there's a fierce north-south divide in England. and there's a sense of independence almost. You know, what they do down south doesn't really interest what we do in the north. And I suppose the coming together of Middlesbrough, North Korea, as we refer to them, for ease in this instance. It was a coming together of two oddities. It was becoming together of two places that weren't meant to be involved in the World Cup. It was not meant to be a host venue.

So that's one strand of it. The second strand is Middlesbrite is a town of migrants. It's a town that's very much shaped by, you know, the coming together of people from all over the world. the world to work in the iron, steel, chemical industries along the banks of the River Tees. So I suspect that might have been a factor as well. But I think there's a few more little quirks that also kind of mobilise the people of Middlesbury behind these minors. There was the fact that they wore red, like Middlesbroughborough, the mayor of Middlesbroughby, you said, you wear the same colours as Middlesbrough, we will shout for you when he greeted the delegation.

Boothby became one of the team's most important local supporters. And according to Bonner, he was not interested in simply following London's cautious line. And in fact, London went up to sort of the Boothby, the mayor of Middlesbrough. It was basically so look after them, but don't be too warm. And I think basically Boothby, who's from the north and there's a great sort of district cross divide there between the north and London of the south of England. And he said, base, put a finger up to them and said, look, we'll welcome them. And so they were welcomed both by the officialdom, if you like, by the town council. But they took the hearts of the locals.

Players signed autographs, children came to watch them train. Hotel staff went home with stories about polite, friendly North Korean footballers. And the North Koreans, who had expected hostility, were surprised by the warmth. What still puzzles me is how the people of Middlesbrough ended up cheering for us with such enthusiasm. Even now, it's something I still can't fully explain. It's a mystery that remains unresolved in my own mind. Warwick says those ordinary moments mattered. There's a couple of photographs of them greeting these young Middlesbrough autograph hunters,

and this is a young child from Middlesbrough who's incredibly unlikely ever to venture even to the continent or certainly not Asian, let alone North Korea or encounter any North Koreans in their lifetime. So I think that kind of helped. I created a bond and ensure these people are very much like us. They're very grounded. And there was another reason some locals warmed to the visitors. I mean, one very bizarre reason why the team were like so much was that they're a bunch of very good-looking lads. We went to the hotel where they stayed during the match, and we went back, and some of the women who had met the team in 66 was still working in 2002 when we went back to the team. And they said, yeah, they were just very, very friendly, very charming.

And also, as one woman said, very good looking. So quite bizarrely, as well as the politics, there's also an aesthetics there thrown in. Politics brought North Korea to England. But charm, curiosity and the love of the sport made millions. Siddlesborough Care. North Korea here at Airsend Park. They rank on the right there, the Russians, in all white strip tonight.

And on the left, of course, the team that everybody wants to know about, the North Koreans. North Korea's first match was against the Soviet Union. They lost 3-0, but according to Bonner, even that defeat helped the crowd rally around them. When they played against Russia,

Russia played the Soviet Union, USSR. The team was particularly dirty, and they knew how good the North Koreans were, and they bounced them off the ball. I think there was a foul every sort of couple of minutes in that match. And you see suddenly the team that basically the locals get behind them. And when Paxon Jins scored the game in a second match, when they were playing against Chile, within the final minutes, you know, they were about to go out,

and then suddenly, boof, Paxon Jinn pops in their cracker, Then the whole atmosphere changed. That was it. They were embraced. They were the local side. Their second match was against Chile, which had finished third at the previous World Cup. North Korea went behind early.

A loss would mean elimination. But in the final minutes, Pak Sung Jin scored a dramatic equalizer. So anxious for this team to do well. If they scored, I'm sure the place would explode. The crowd almost willing it in. They have scored their first goal at the World Cup tournament. You know, there's a bit of hope, it's a bit of excitement.

There's a bit of, you know, there's a bit of danger that they might actually qualify. Or at least make it a game against the Italians, you know, and that was, you know, that proved to be the point. And one of the newspaper writers of the time, Cliff Mitchell wrote about how the crowd was as much responsible for the goal as Paxung Jin. That draw meant North Korea still had a chance. chance. But to advance, they had to face Italy, a two-time World Cup champion and one of the tournament's favourites. The match began as expected. Italy attacked, North Korea resisted. Then in

the 34th minute, Italian captain Giacomo Bougarelli went off injured. Substitutions were not yet allowed, and Italy were down to 10 men. Eight minutes later, Pactawik scored. North Korea won, Italy, nil. It was the greatest shock in World Cup history. It was so unexpected. Italy was eliminated. North Korea was through to the quarterfinals. The team that London had expected to disappear after the first round

had become one of the stories of the tournament. and Middlesbrough had a new local team. North Korea's next match was in Liverpool against Portugal. Around 3,000 Middlesbrough residents made the trip to support them. One reportedly said they were going to support our local team. For a few minutes, the fairy tale looked like it might go even further. North Korea raced to a 3-0 lead. Then Yusebio happened.

Portugal's star striker led a 6th. stunning comeback to give his team a 5-3 win. North Korea were out. But the crowd really saluting these Koreans who played their hearts out. They're looking a bit dejected and disappointed, but they've really done far, far better than anyone could possibly expect. But by then, they had already made history. They had beaten Italy. They had reached the quarter finals. And they had built a bond with a town that would remember them long after they went home. For decades, the story became part of local folklore. The team's achievements were remembered in Middlesbrough, even as memories faded elsewhere. Then in 2002, the game of their lives

brought the surviving players back to Britain. For Gordon and Bonner, it was a chance to reconnect the players with the town that had adopted them. What awaited them was not politeness It was a hero's welcome. Everyone was sort of like crowned around the North Koreans. I just saw this little kid, tiny little kid, and he was trying to get through. And I was like, you're okay? It was, yeah, yeah, yeah, which one's Patrick Deweig?

My granddad said, I've got to meet Pac-Dewick. Bonner remembers the return as something almost cinematic. The players returning to Middlesbrough and onto the pitch, and they were given a standing ovation at half-time. It was just, yeah, it was that one of those awful kind of kitsch, Hollywood films, you know, but it was, it was, in reality, absolutely spectacular. Yeah, they all came on to a standing evasion and, yeah, quite, quite remarkable. So, yeah, the love from Middlesbrough was certainly there. But the return also produced quieter, more unexpected moments.

At one point, Bonner says a South Korean man arrived with a tub of kimchi for the North Korean players. And he said the Koreans, I know we're the enemy, but this is, This is from our country, one country, and it was a very beautiful thing. He was invited in and the players looked after him and they all, you know, and having kimchi in a country where it was quite difficult to find at the time, that was quite special for the players. The visit had an impact not only in Britain, but back in North Korea. Gordon says the documentary and the return helped revive the player's reputations at home.

The players then became heroes again in their own country. by people of North Korea had forgotten, they'd forgotten and moved on. And people in, yeah, in Middlesbrough probably remembered them more. So they were like, late in life, they became quite famous in their own country. And that was lovely. Gordon also remembers the conversation in Pyongyang that showed the story had done something he had not expected. The guy came up to us and said,

I just wanted to say I'd always grown up thinking that the British were the enemy because she fought in the Korean War on the American side. and I saw how, in your film The Game of Their Lives, I saw how the British people warmly welcomed our players. And I saw in 2002 that the British people again warmly welcomed our players. And so I've changed my mind. I used to think that the British were imperialists, and now I think that the people are really good people.

And it was a weird thing we set out, I certainly set out in the beginning, that we'll educate people about North Korea. You know, it's a different country. It's not like ours. let's do it. But actually we ended up doing the reverse. We educated the Koreans as much about us, which we hadn't set out to do, but was a definite knock on his side. Today, Ersum Park no longer exists. It was demolished in 1997 and replaced by housing.

But the site still carries traces of that summer. Memorials, local stories and the memory of Puck Doick's goal against Italy. In 2009, the connection even helped inspire a visit by Middlesbray, women's team to Pyongyang, arranged by Koryo Tours and the British Embassy, to mark 10 years of UK DPRK diplomatic relations. The visit did not transform relations. Sport rarely does that on its own. But Warwick says the Middlesbrough story still matters because of what ordinary people remember and what they do not.

When people see that North Korean flag in Middlesbrough, they don't think of the diplomatic issue. are present. They don't think about central embargoes. They don't think about nuclear testing. They think about that magical moment at Asson Park in July 1966. At a time when Britain and North Korea have again

seen relations deteriorate, it's tempting to ask whether sport can still act as a bridge. While Warwick is cautious about mixing soccer and politics too neatly, he does say the story shows something simple and powerful. It might sound a little bit

naive, but I think there's certainly the sporting connections and the enduring passion and friendship and the enduring fond memories of that North Korean-Middlesburg connection. On both sides, I think there's a real need to keep sport, and especially football and politics, very, very separate. First and foremost, football is a way to connect people. That may be the real legacy of North Korea's 1966 World Cup run. not just the victory over Italy, not just the quarter-final against Portugal, not even the flag flying over an English stadium.

But the fact that a team from one of the world's most isolated countries arrived in a town that had every reason to view them with suspicion and left remembered as local heroes. Our players came away with very positive feelings. we also developed very warm feelings towards the people there. It made us realize that football is not simply about winning or losing a match. Wherever we go to play, the fundamental purpose is to build friendship and foster goodwill.

The North Koreans came to Middlesbrough as outsiders. For a few weeks in 1966, they became the town's team. And 60 years later, that bond still says something about what can happen when politics steps aside. The whistle blows and people simply watch the game together. A huge thank you to Shreyes Reddy, whose two-part feature series for NKnews on North Korea's 1966 World Cup run, formed the basis of this episode. And to Nicholas Bonner, Daniel Gordon and Tosh Warwick for sharing their insights. Special thanks also to Nick and Daniel

for allowing us to use soundbites from the game of their lives and to Juna Park for providing the dubbed Korean soundbites. You can read both parts of Shreyes' feature at NK News and they'll also be linked in the show notes of this episode. I'm Alana Hill. Thank you for listening.