Meet the irony-seeking 'hipsters' cheering for North Korea's soccer team

(Image credit: Matt King/Getty Images)

North Korea has a lot of problems — desperate North Koreans have been crossing into China and killing Chinese for their food, for instance — and among the less serious ones is the dearth of fans at its international soccer games. Before the ongoing Asian Cup in Australia, organizers tried to drum up support among any North Koreans living in the country, "but the lines of communication quickly went dead," says Joe Gorman at The Guardian. He continues:

To fill the void, the North Koreans are being supported at the Asian Cup by a motley crew of inner-city hipsters looking for an appropriately ironic team to follow, whack-job communists still raging against the dying light of Marxism-Leninism, cheapskates taking advantage of the cut-price tickets (and I mean cut-price — you can get into North Korean group matches for a tenner), and, most curiously of all, the South Korean reunificationists. [Guardian]

Gorman's whole report on the fans of hapless Team North Korea — knocked out of the tournament after losses to Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia — is interesting and amusing and worth a read.

As for the irony-seeking "inner-city hipsters," you can watch them ironically chant "six-time world champions!" and "Kim Jung Un, ole ole ole" here, see a photo of their "North Korea is the Best Korea" banner here, or read the rest of Gorman's dispatch.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.