Dictator Kim Jong-un has given Tottenham Hotspur their marching orders.
The 26 million citizens of North Korea sit down to watch football matches from the English top flight before the 5pm news. But the regime does not show any clashes involving teams with players from old rivals South Korea.
That means struggling Spurs and the team's skipper Son Heung-min are never seen on North Korea’s version of Match of the Day. Coverage last year also left out Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Kim Ji-soo, who is in Brentford’s ranks.
Matches are shown on state-run KCTV four months after they are played, so that last August’s games were seen in January. The findings came in a report by the Washington-based Stimson Center’s 38 North project.
It said North Korean television schedules are rife with propaganda, but sports is "one of the few moments each day when state TV is not trying to send an overt or underlying message to its viewers".
Senior fellow Martyn Williams added: "There wasn’t really any intention to the research except that we thought it was interesting. We just saw a lot of football on KCTV. It’s the main international sport they broadcast."
The report said that in 2023, KCTV showed action from the Premier League, World Cup and Champions League. Matches are shortened from 90 minutes to 60 minutes and are almost certainly a breach of copyright, according to the report.
North Korea does not have an agreement to show any Premier League TV highlights.