North Korea Soccer Team to Receive Sponsorship from Chinese Sportswear Brand... "Violation of UN Security Council Sanctions"

Sponsorship Agreement with Chinese Sports Goods Company
Sports Goods Classified as Luxury Items in 2016 North Korea Sanctions
Foreign Media: "China Passive in Implementing North Korea Sanctions"

As a Chinese company is reported to have signed an official sponsorship contract with the North Korean national football team, controversy is expected due to potential violations of UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

The US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on the 27th that the Chinese sportswear company ‘Inlang Sports’ posted on WeChat the day before about signing a sponsorship agreement with the North Korean men's and women's national football teams.

Inlang Sports and the North Korean Football Association held a signing ceremony on the 24th at the meeting room of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau in Loudi City, Hunan Province, China, attended by Shin Yong-chol, Secretary General of the North Korean Football Association, and Wang Haibing, Chairman of Inlang Sports.

Inlang Sports has a capital of 1.6 million USD (approximately 2.1 billion KRW), which is not large in scale. RFA analyzed, “It appears that Inlang Sports expects promotional effects by supplying uniforms to the North Korean football team participating in competitions.”

However, this raises concerns about violating the Security Council’s sanctions against North Korea.

North Korean players celebrating after scoring a goal against Korea in the women's football quarterfinals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games [Image source=Yonhap News]

The UN Security Council has adopted six rounds of sanctions resolutions against North Korea since 2006, and in March 2016, it adopted Resolution 2270 in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and other provocations. Considered the “strongest resolution in UN Security Council history,” Resolution 2270 expanded the list of luxury items subject to sanctions to 12 categories, classifying sports equipment as luxury goods and prohibiting their transfer to North Korea.

The North Korean national football team previously wore uniforms produced by Fila, Adidas, and Hongxing Sports, but since the 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, they have worn uniforms without logos.

RFA pointed out, “The attendance of officials from Hunan Province, China, at the signing ceremony shows that China, a permanent member of the Security Council, is passive in enforcing sanctions against North Korea.”

Joshua Stanton, a US expert on North Korean sanctions, stated, “The Chinese are not greatly concerned even when the US, South Korea, Japan, Europe, and the UK all talk to China about sanctions violations.”

Meanwhile, at the time of the 2016 Resolution 2270 sanctions, North Korea protested that some countries in the US and Europe were using the UN Security Council’s sanctions enforcement as a pretext to block exports of sports goods to North Korea and even sports exchanges.

North Korea condemned this as “a vile and illegal act contrary to the Olympic ideals of building a better and more peaceful world through sports, as well as the UN Charter guaranteeing the sovereignty, equality, and development rights of sovereign states.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.