Matt Cooper: North Korea event was 'cringe inducing

Broadcaster Matt Cooper has spoken about his attendance at one of the most bizarre basketball games in history which culminated in former NBA star Dennis Rodman leading 40,000 people in singing happy birthday to North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un.

“It was cringe-inducing to watch,” Cooper said of the match, which took place on Wednesday.

The Today FM journalist surprised many when he was spotted on international media reports at events preceding the event in the capital Pyongyang.

He said a brainwashed people with a cult-like devotion to their leader created a strange environment for what was a farcical sporting contest with an outside chance of improving diplomatic relations.

“It was an extraordinary atmosphere in the sense that before the game it was almost deathly quiet and then Kim arrived with his wife, and even that was significant because there had been rumours that she may have been purged as well. But she was very much alive and there at the game.

“And the crowd erupted in a way that you would rarely see. It was spontaneous and there was an outpouring of emotion. It was quiet extraordinary to see the enthusiasm with which they cheered and clapped.

“That said, it reminded me almost of... when Pope John Paul II came to Ireland in 1979.”

Cooper told The Last Word that he had travelled to Pyongyang to do interviewing work for an English documentary crew who had been working on a programme about the unusual friendship between Rodman and the young dictator.

He sat four rows back from the country’s leader during the game but did not get to meet him due to the suspicions of the media.

Restrictions were put on the work Cooper and his crew could do. The cameras were not able to film Kim when he appeared in the stadium and, although they had limited phone contact, they worked on the assumption their phones were monitored. Cooper said he was able to make one call to his wife during his four-day stay.

They were given some internet access and could watch propaganda footage of Kim’s arrival at the game that was broadcast on the evening news.

The event gave Cooper a rare opportunity to see a city and country largely cut off to western tourists. He said it was very grey and devoid of advertising banners save for propaganda images of the Kim, his father, and his grandfather.

Cooper said he may write a book about the staging of the event.

In Bejing now. My apologies to everyone who was looking for me but I was unable to access tweets and e-mail. Back in Dublin late sunday.

— Matt Cooper (@cooper_m) January 10, 2014