Canadian brings hockey to North Korea

Michael Spavor at an ice hockey rink in North Korea in 2005 / Courtesy of Paektu Cultural Exchange

Pyongyang to host int'l hockey tournament

By Jon Dunbar

Hockey players from around the world are going to North Korea's capital for the five-day Pyongyang International Friendship Ice Hockey Exhibition (PIFIHE) from March 7 to 11.

The event is made possible by Michael Spavor, a Canadian with much experience engaging North Korea over the past 15 years.

He previously organized American basketball player Dennis Rodman's second, third and fourth controversial visits to the secretive state, including a basketball game on Jan. 8, 2014, which fell on leader Kim Jong-un's birthday.

Spavor has met Kim numerous times, describing the dictator as “disarmingly friendly.”

"Before meeting him in person, I was quite nervous," Spavor admitted, "But once the two of us sat down and had a conversation, I felt really comfortable and relaxed. He makes you feel very comfortable."

Spavor and Kim discussed cultural and sports exchanges and tourism, investment and trade projects. They talked about hockey and skiing, two popular winter sports from Spavor's homeland that the North is developing.

Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Spavor grew up playing hockey. During a six-month stay in Pyongyang in 2005, he attended a hockey tournament there after a friend saw a poster for locals. They came uninvited, but were welcomed.

"At that point, we thought wow it would be great to bring over some Canadians to play hockey, thinking of ways to build trust between Canada and the DPRK," he said. "Canadians are really good at hockey and, given the opportunity, they could help the North develop their hockey program."

His non-profit social enterprise, Paektu Cultural Exchange (PCE,) began recruiting foreign players for PIFIHE late last year.

According to Spavor, 25-28 pro and amateur players have registered, mainly from regional hockey teams, including expat players living in South Korea. Their names have not been announced for their own privacy, he said.

Spavor said there will be three or four games. They will play with the North's men's team, currently ranked 45th in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). He said he is waiting to hear whether they can play the women's team, too, ranked considerably higher at 29th. He also hopes to include young North Korean hockey players who would benefit most.

As at the 2014 basketball event, they will likely play a game mingling the two sides, giving North Korean audiences a chance to root for foreign players alongside their own athletes.

On the sidelines of PIFIHE, the players will run practice drills and training workshops for North Koreans.

"During the Rodman visits, what a lot of people don't know is behind the scenes we were running training camps and working with DPRK basketball players," Spavor said.

He said they offered training camps for North Koreans and visited Together Hamhung, a German-run NGO that works with the deaf.

“There were a lot of other activities that the media didn't pick up on," he said, expressing disappointment with the media coverage, which focused on the spectacle of Rodman singing "Happy Birthday" to Kim.

But Spavor said he has seen a positive impact from the spectacle in recent visits to North Korea.

Shortly after Rodman's first visit in February 2013, Spavor visited a rural middle school. Speaking with English language students, he was surprised most of them knew of Rodman.

When asked what they thought of the aggressively eccentric basketball star, he recalls one boy answering: "Dennis Rodman looks very strange, but I saw our leader give him a hug and they're friends. I also want to be his friend."

"Maybe one day I can also have an American friend," said another boy.

Spavor said: "Even though the relations between the DPRK and the U.S. are not good, the leader of the country giving a person from the U.S. a hug, I think that's a good message to the people."

Next, he is preparing a delegation for the Spring Friendship Art Festival on April 11-20, which opens this year to foreign visitors. From June 5 to 15, he is planning a North-South Korea Academic Forum, in which participants will visit both Koreas to participate in academic exchanges. He also plans to bring North Korean classical musicians to perform in Europe.

“I think it's important to have other ways of communication, whether it's through sports or tourism or cultural and academic exchanges,” Spavor said. “I think these are really important for both people visiting DPRK and DPRK people to interact and see that they are just the same."

For more information about PCE's activities, visit paektuculturalexchange.org.