North Korean basketball player (long, not Celtics-related)

[lamphier@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Marc Lamphier)]

A couple of earlier posts mentioned the possibility of drafting some 7'9"
North Korean player who is currently in Canada. In a continuing attempt to
cover basketball-related news from every possible news source, and by way
of comic relief, I am forwarding the following item from the official
Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang (note the small "s" in "south
Korea"). 

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False report of some s. Korean media

Pyongyang, May 23 (KCNA) -- South Korean newspapers Choong-Ang Daily and
Chosun Ilbo on
May 19 carried a false report about "defection" of a DPRK sportsman who is
staying in Canada for
professional training. As exposed by the spokesman for the Committee for
the Peaceful
Reunification of the Fatherland in a statement, the fiction of "defection"
is nothing but an unreliable
rumour faked up by the puppet Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP)
of south Korea for
a political purpose. The spokesman of the company which signed a contract
with the DPRK
sportsman refuted the rumour at a press conference on May 20. And the
Foreign Ministry of
Canada lodged a protest with the south Korean Ambassador to Canada against
the groundless
rumour, saying that it has not been informed of the "defection". On May 20,
the CNN reported that
the rumour about "defection" is groundless. Even press media of south Korea
including the
"christian broadcasting system" said that the report is a lie. With the
report proved to be false,
Choong-Ang Daily and Chosun Ilbo have won an ill name as hack newspapers
playing into the
hands of the ANSP. As for Choong-Ang Daily, it was once censured by press
media and public
opinion after it reported a false dispatch from Chief Editor of its Chicago
branch Ri Chan Sam hired
by the ANSP a few years ago. It is shameless for some media of south Korea
to take the lead in
misleading public opinion and worsening the inter-Korean relations, playing
into the hands of the
ANSP, which has been reduced to a private trickster of Kim Young Sam. Mass
media should
control and examine themselves as mouthpieces of justice and truth. This is
also what the south
Korean press calls for. Choong-Ang Daily and Chosun Ilbo would be well
advised to reflect on
false reports about "defection". Press media should report items after
considering them carefully. 


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uhhh....OK, guess that settles it.