"North Korea Will Win the 2010 FIFA World Cup"

"North Korea will win the World Cup. It is because of the great support of our Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il that our national team will make this great achievement."

These are the words told by the vice-president of the North Korea FA, Son Kwang-Ho, to reporter Neil Billingham of FourFourTwo magazine.

Billingham did a special feature on North Korea ahead of their first appearance at a World Cup finals in 44 years, and found that "for a state that honours its heroes, there is no media coverage of its latest stars—the national football team."

After all, dictator Kim Jong-Il's favoured propaganda weapon of late is, of course, the nuclear programme, with North Korea claiming to have "successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945."

In any case, it immediately leads to the inevitable question. From possibly the most secluded country in the world, is the North Korea FA's statement a war cry from world football's next rising powerhouse, or simply the deluded rant of a state run by propaganda?

Past experiences could actually lead to the answer being the former, as North Korea's last World Cup showing came in England in 1966.

In that tournament, the team from far East Asia made it all the way to the quarter-finals, beating the colossal Italy along the way.

Therefore, having been slightly better this time round and doing better in qualifying, knocking out the likes of Iran and Saudi Arabia, could they actually spring the ultimate surprise to the watching world?

Then again, this is a team who got through to the finals in South Africa by going loco on the Italian favourite of catenaccio .

The Choilima (North Korea's nickname) only conceded five goals in the whole of their qualifying campaign. That said, they only scored 12 times in 14 matches.

And considering the North Koreans have been placed in Group G, i.e. the Group of Death , with Ivory Coast, Portugal, and Brazil, their chances of progressing to the knockout stages could well be minimal, to say the least.

This is a view shared by Waldir Cipriani, vice-president of second division Brazilian team Atletico Sorocaba from Sao Paulo, who played North Korea in a friendly at the 80,000 capacity Kim Il-Sung stadium in Pyongyang.

He reportedly told Dunga, coach of the Brazil national team, that North Korea "will find it hard to even score a goal in South Africa."

North Korea drew 0-0 with Atletico Sorocaba, despite having the sell-out 80,000 home crowd behind them.

Although, the support generated wasn't exactly inspirational, according to Billingham, who stated that "rarely have so many people produced so little noise."

When the players from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (to give the country its full title) take to the pitch in South Africa, it doesn't seem likely that they'll have much support from the stands, which is just one of many factors that'll go against them ahead of this summer's showpiece event.

Star striker and captain of the team Hong Yong-Jo takes a differing view, however.

The forward, who has attracted interest in the past from Tottenham Hotspur and various Bundesliga sides, but has been denied a move by the government who refused to sanction any transfer to a Western club, claims North Korea will shine in South Africa.

"Football in North Korea is getting stronger every year," he said.

"Our youth teams are doing well, our women's team has been very successful, and now we have qualified for the World Cup," claimed Hong. "We will go to South Africa full of confidence and hoping that we can do our nation proud."

It's such optimism from products of the state like Hong Yong-Jo that epitomises the current Pyongyang regime.

As has been well documented, from the beautiful female traffic cops (allegedly hand-picked by Kim Jong-Il) to the propaganda radios fitted in every home that can't be turned off, everything is designed to give the impression that North Korea is a thriving, bouyant, and successful country.

This is the same nation with one of the worst human rights records in the world, and the same nation that hasn't qualified for the World Cup in 44 years until now, with a completely amateur football system and a top-flight consisting of 15 non-professional clubs.

Unlike what the North Koreans say, at the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals, this team could easily receive a thrashing in all three of their matches.

In 2002, when bitter enemies and neighbours South Korea hosted the World Cup, matches weren't broadcast on North Korean TV.

On the morning of South Korea's third-place play-off against Turkey, a North Korean gunboat attacked a South Korean patrol boat, killing 18 people.

Again, it leads to an inevitable question—how will the North Korean government deal with their team's participation at the 2010 FIFA World Cup?

After all, it's not like the players are actually capable of following through with the statements made by the men in suits at the top of the North Korean football hierarchy.

Will it be a glorious victory parade in Pyongyang by the North Korean sporting superstars come mid-July?

Or will Kim Jong-Il again have to fan the flames of his nuclear programme to distract from the inevitable poor performances on the pitch?