An Italian football media reported that Han Kwang-sung, a North Korean soccer player who played for Qatar, must return to North Korea after receiving a notice of the expiration of his contract. ‘TuttoMercatoWeb’ said that the overseas activities of the North Korean national striker Han Kwang-Sung of Qatar professional football AL DUHAIL have ended, and they will return to their hometown and continue their careers.
Han Kwang-sung, a leading North Korean striker, wore an Italian Cagliari uniform in 2017, scored a goal in Serie A, the first division of Italian football, and moved to Juventus, a prestigious global football club. However, due to international sanctions against North Korea, Han Kwang-sung moved to Qatar Pro Team Alduhai in January last year. At that time, the transfer fee was 5 million euros. However, as the level of sanctions against North Korea increased due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, even paying wages to’foreign currency-earning workers’ became subject to sanctions, sparking fire on Han Kwang-seong as well. Initially, the sanctions against North Korea were aimed at a system in which foreign currency earned’slaves’ and worked in industries that did tough work in Europe and the Middle East and paid most of their wages to North Korean government funds. However, as it became known that European football players, who receive huge salaries, pay about half of their annual salary as governing funds for the Kim family in North Korea, they have become’workers subject to sanctions’.
According to the Interim Report of the Expert Panel by the UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee on North Korea, released on September 28 last year, North Korean soccer players’ entry into overseas leagues is also a violation of UN sanctions.
In this report, it is stated that three players who have played in overseas leagues, including Han Kwang-sung and Choi Seong-hyuk and Park Kwang-ryong, are eligible for repatriation. Let’s listen to reporter Ji Ye-won for a moment.
Reporter Ji Ye-won: According to the report, the North Korean military industry, subject to UN sanctions, dispatched a number of information technology (IT) workers overseas to earn foreign currency last year and stayed there this year, after the point of repatriation. The UN expert panel judges that illegal foreign workers in North Korea use the names of third country nationals to hide their identities to evade UN sanctions. In particular, the report noted that IT workers dispatched by the Ministry of Military Industry were active in China and Russia. In addition, the report also covered the overseas expansion of North Korean soccer players. Three players specifically mentioned were Kwang-Sung Han, Sung-hyuk Choi, and Gwang-ryong Park, and Kwang-Sung Han, who was active in Italian professional football, earned 520,000 euros per year from Juventus from 2018 to mid-January this year. In January of this year, he signed a five-year contract with Alduhail, the Qatar League, for a total of 4.13 million euros, or about $5. Choi Sung-hyuk earned 20,000 euros per year in Arezzo, Italy, or about US$ 23,000 until January of this year.
Han Kwang-sung moved to Italy in 2015 and made his professional debut at Cagliari Calcio of Serie A in the first division in 2017. Later, he played for Italy’s AC Perugia Calcio and Juventus FC, and moved to Qatar Professional Football League Alduhail SC in January. However, due to sanctions against North Korea, it is known that it was recently released from the team. There was a recent report saying that “Han Kwang-seong was excluded from the Alduhaiil entry for his team in early September,” and that it is analyzed as a result of economic sanctions.
Meanwhile, it is also known that Han Kwang-sung, a North Korean striker belonging to the Middle East professional football team, may be on loan to a Russian professional football team. Reporter Lee Kyung-ha reported.
North Korean national striker Han Kwang-sung of Qatar professional football AL DUHAIL has been offered a lease from FC Tambov, a Russian professional football team, according to Russian online news media vesti.ru. It was reported on February 26th. FC Tambov is based in Tambov, a city with a population of about 290,000, which is the capital of Tambov Province in southeastern Moscow, Russia. Local Russian media said FC Tambov offered a loan to Han Kwang-sung, who transferred from Juventus, Italy to Al Duhaiil in Qatar in January, and said that Han Kwang-sung may be staying in Russia. In soccer, rental is a temporary transfer of a player from one’s team to another team, mainly playing against players who are suffering from injuries or failures in the main game, or against new players who have no place to start. It is being implemented to give an opportunity. Alduhail released a list of 30 first-team members in the 2020-21 season on their Instagram account, an internet social network, on September 10th, but the names and uniform numbers of Han Kwang-sung were not included. Han Kwang-Sung’s last appearance on this account was on August 22, just after the team won the league.
On the other hand, Choi Seong-hyuk, who played for the Italian league US Arezzo, seems to have left the team after the contract expires in January, but is currently staying in the country without returning to North Korea due to the suspension of international flights due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) Side said. According to the response from the Italian government, Han Kwang-sung received 520,000 euros a year from the former team Juventus from 2018 to mid-January this year, and Choi Sung-hyuk earned 20,000 euros a year in Arezzo until January this year.
Park Kwang-ryong, who was a member of Austria’s first division St. Puten, appeared in the team training photos until the first half of the year, but the contract expired on July 5th. The local media reported that it was released due to sanctions against North Korea. It has been reported that Park Gwang-ryong is also unable to return to Korea due to Corona 19.
That’s it for today’s sports magazine. This is Jin-guk Kim in progress so far.