I heard of a lot worse happen to football teams. This is from an article on wikipedia about the fortunes of Iraqi team prior to 2003.
During the rule of the government of Saddam Hussein, Saddam's son, Uday Huessein, was in charge of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and, by extension, the national football team. Under Uday's leadership, motivational lectures to the team included threats to cut off players' legs, while missed practices resulted in prison time and losses resulted in flogging with electric cable or baths in raw sewage, if penalites or an open goal was missed or own goals were scored then that person would have their feet whipped with thorns.
So compared to that North Korea's players were treated pretty well. But really, the North Korean government expected them to get to the quarter finals. Shows how much they exaggerate things.
