Eyewitnessnews.co.za
1 May 2010
By Ryan Truscott
Officials in Zimbabwe on Saturday said it was not clear whether the North Korean football team will train in the country ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Rights groups had promised to protest against the team’s presence in Zimbabwe because of North Korea’s military involvement in the country in the 1980s.
Sports Minister David Coltart said it was not clear if North Korea was actually going to be Zimbabwe.
He told Eyewitness News the soccer team’s trip to Zimbabwe was not sure.
The visit has been shrouded in controversy.
North Korea was one of five foreign teams invited to train in Zimbabwe and the only one that appeared to have accepted the invitation.
Initially Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said the team would train in Bulawayo but that sparked an angry reaction from activists and survivors of the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s.
North Korean troops trained Zimbabwe’s Fifth Brigade, which carried out the killings.
Mzembi then said the team would stay in Harare but only for sporting reasons.