Monday, March 28, 2011

North Korea stops international ice hockey participation

First reported on the International Ice Hockey Federation's website, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (aka North Korea, aka DPR, aka Kim Jong-il land) has withdrawn from all IIHF tournaments effective immediately. The reason being cited for the withdraw are financial issues.

DPR Korea has been a IIHF member since 1963 and first fielded an international hockey team in 1974 but has taken breaks from international participation; 1975-1980 and 1994-2001.

Currently the women's team is ranked 21st out of 34 (Turkey is ranked 34) and the men's team is ranked 43rd out of 49 (Armenia is ranked 49th). Korea (South Korea) participates at the Division 1 level with its men's team ranked 33rd and women's ranked 28th.

According to the IIHF, DPR Korea has 3 indoor rinks and 640 male and 515 female registered players. This announcement causes a scheduling problem as the IIHF Men's and Women's Division 2 World Championship are set to start on April 4th in Australia and France respectively.

Hopefully this is just temporary and the men's and women's team will be back next season!
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7 comments:

  1. Adam NowekMarch 28, 2011 at 5:15:00 PM ADT

    The title is incredibly misleading. They didn't stop participating: they withdrew due to financial issues. Those are two entirely different things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mystery AlMarch 28, 2011 at 5:17:00 PM ADT

    If they took brakes, then wouldn't they not stop anything?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 28, 2011 at 5:41:00 PM ADT

    Maybe they can have a bake sale to raise money.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 28, 2011 at 5:43:00 PM ADT

    The great leader needed the cash to buy some more Hennessy.
    Speaking of the great leader, maybe he should join the team since he is the greatest athlete in human history.

    ReplyDelete
  5. tylerbiltonMarch 29, 2011 at 9:16:00 AM ADT

    Sorry for the misleading title, but gotta pull in the readers somehow! Still, not the first time North Korea has done this and not the last. Unfortunately for the players in DPKR, they are not a concern to the government. Money needs to be spent in other places (eg. military)

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMarch 29, 2011 at 12:12:00 PM ADT

    Hey, Tyler,
    It's "breaks", not "brakes."

    You might have a better shot at pulling in reeders if you axtually tride to spel things gud.

    ReplyDelete
  7. tylerbiltonMarch 29, 2011 at 3:59:00 PM ADT

    Cheers. Always looking for an editor ;)

    ReplyDelete

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