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(LEAD) Talks on broadcasting World Cup matches to N. Korea in limbo: broadcaster
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean broadcaster said Tuesday its talks with North Korea to broadcast the communist state's World Cup matches to Pyongyang have hit a snag amid strained inter-Korean relations.
"We had planned to move forward with the talks in earnest in April and May, but they didn't progress amid strained inter-Korean ties," SBS said in a release. | | Data picture |
The Seoul-based television station cited a suspected deadly North Korean attack on a South Korean warship off the west coast in March, among other factors.
It did not comment on reports that North Korea is demanding cash for covering cheering crowds in the capital, Pyongyang, during the World Cup, set to begin in South Africa next month.
But an official at the broadcaster, who declined to be named, denied them in a separate meeting with reporters, retracting his earlier comments.
North Korea has qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time in 44 years and sent its team to South Africa last week. In the 1966 World Cup in England, the country made a splash by advancing to the quarterfinals.
SBS and North Korea have held talks twice in Beijing since last August. The broadcaster said it is not seeking financial rewards but only "North Korean cooperation in the production of the broadcasts." It did not specifically say what has blocked the negotiations from moving forward, only citing strained political relations between the divided states.
In 2006, the South Korean government provided recorded coverage of two World Cup matches to its impoverished communist neighbor at its own expense. A spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry said Tuesday the Seoul government has yet to consider whether it will allow such a transmission again because SBS has not made any headway in its talks with North Korea.
"SBS has not yet requested such approval," Chun Hae-sung told reporters. "We will consider it only after we receive such a request."
North Korea has been in growing need of cash to curb its economic troubles, which depeened after a botched currency reform late last year, analysts say. Tension is also high between North and South Korea after a South Korean naval ship mysteriously sank near their western sea border in March.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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