Sponsoring North Korean Sports

There is controversy over sponsoring North Korean and Sudanese athletes

BEIJING — After Nike Inc. and Adidas AG locked up most of China’s athletes in juicy sponsorship deals, Chinese sportswear brand Erke decided to boldly go where the global giants wouldn’t. It would outfit North Korea’s Olympic team.

But that decision is raising alarms with human-rights activists. And for Erke, working with such an insular nation hasn’t been easy. During the Opening Ceremonies, for instance, the North Koreans refused to wear Erke’s logo for fear it would compete with their country’s Communist red-starred flag.
[Photo]
ColorChinaPhoto/Newscom
North Korea has medal prospects in sports like weightlifting, soccer and judo.

Erke isn’t the only Chinese brand that has made an alliance with a pariah state’s Olympic delegation in an effort to sell more sportswear at home. And human-rights activists worry that such sponsorships will become a larger trend. The deals by Chinese firms could start “a new race to the bottom — using the pretext of competition — to engage in what is morally wrong,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.