North Korea wrestling tournament latest move to build goodwill with the West

NORTH KOREA has called in the big guns, literally, in its latest move to win the hearts of the west by holding its first wrestling tournament in 20 years.

NORTH KOREA has called in the big guns, literally, in its latest move to win the hearts of the west by holding its first wrestling tournament in 20 years.

And the rogue nation isn’t afraid to use a bit of muscle in its bid to prove it’s just as good as the rest of us in the ring at least. North Koreans got a glimpse into pro-wrestling at the weekend when an ex-NFL lineman and 20 other grapplers from around the world took to the ring for an exhibition put together by a charismatic former Japanese pro-wrestler who is now a member of parliament. Kanji “Antonio” Inoki, who organised the two-day event in Pyongyang, said he hoped the event would pave the way for more exchanges with the North. The exhibition was the first major sports event with big-name foreigners in the North Korean capital since Dennis Rodman and a team of other former NBA players staged a game in January for leader Kim Jong Un’s birthday. Jang Ung, a member of the International Olympic Committee and the North Korean co-organiser of this weekend’s event, opened the show on Saturday with a speech denouncing the US for conducting military exercises with South Korea that he said were preparations for a nuclear attack. But when Americans Bob “The Beast” Sapp and Jon Andersen actually took to the ring, the crowd of about 15,000 didn’t seem to know how to respond. “It was real eerie and a little scary at first,” said Sapp, who briefly played for the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears before becoming a celebrity in Japan as a mixed martial artist. “But we were able to take control of the audience. It went over very well.” Inoki, best known for taking on world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in a zany wrestler-versus-boxer match in Tokyo in 1976 also organised and competed in a “Sports and Cultural Festival for Peace” in Pyongyang in 1995. The event featured bouts between Japanese and American pro wrestlers which were publicly staged for the first time in the reclusive country, with an ailing Ali as a guest. Inoki’s latest venture brought 21 fighters from Japan, the United States, France, Brazil and China to the “International Pro Wrestling Festival” at the North Korean capital’s 20,000-seat Ryugyong Chung Ju-yung Stadium. And it wouldn’t be the first time international stars had been brought in as part of a PR sporting stunt. Earlier this year, eccentric US basketball star Dennis Rodman attracted world headlines when he visited North Korea as part of an exhibition basketball match involving other NBA stars to mark Kim’s birthday. Rodman developed an unlikely relationship with the young North Korean leader since making his first trip there in February last year when he declared Kim a “friend for life”. The latest tournament is no doubt part of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s grand plan to prove life in North Korea is rosy and is in stark contrast to accusations by the west of horrific human rights abuses. It also forms a part of the government’s concerted PR effort to show Pyongyang as a vibrant city, attractive to sporting stars and tourists alike. Just last month, Kim allowed a film crew into the secretive country to portray a typical day in the life of its citizens and a video Enter Pyongyang was the result. Filmed in and around the capital, viewers are taken on a tour giving a rare insight into the rogue state, but the film crew admit their every move was tightly controlled. Travellers and tourists are only allowed to move within certain parts of Pyongyang and are strictly chaperoned and surveilled by government officials. Branding specialist JT Singh, along with time lapse filmmaker Rob Whitworth, created Enter Pyongyang in conjunction with local tour company Koryo Tours. Mr Singh admitted his every move was monitored by the National Tourism Administration but that from what he saw the capital was functioning and its citizens seemed as normal as everyone else. But North Korea expert Dr Leonid Petrov from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific said while the three-minute video was an accurate representation of life in Pyongyang, life was very different outside the capital. According to him this video was part of Kim’s grand plan to show his citizens as peace-loving and his country as modern and vibrant. “It’s a great marketing tool,” he told news.com.au in an interview last month.