North Korea airs illegal broadcast of World Cup opening match

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

SEOUL, June 12 (Yonhap) - North Korea broadcast the opening match of the FIFA World Cup between hosts South Africa and Mexico Saturday, despite its lack of broadcasting rights.

The recorded footage of Friday’s game was broadcast via the North’s Korean Central Broadcasting Station, prompting an accusation of piracy from the South Korean broadcaster, SBS, which has the World Cup broadcasting rights for the entire Korean Peninsula.

“The North’s broadcast was unauthorized as we have the broadcasting rights for entire Korean Peninsula,” an SBS official said. “The company will decide its measure after determining how North Korea secured the footage.”

SBS earlier had sought to provide World Cup feeds to the impoverished North but the negotiations were halted due to heightened tension over March’s sinking of a South Korean warship in an apparent torpedo attack from the communist country.

An international investigation led by South Korea has concluded that North Korea was behind the attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

(Source: Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 1404 gmt 12 Jun 10 via BBC Monitoring)