This is not the first time Inoki hosted an event in North Korea; in 1996 he promoted one titled the Peace Festival that was attended by a number of WCW wrestlers - Flair, Sting, Scott Norton, the Steiners, etc,. Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair both covered the event in their autobiographies. Muhammad Ali was also on the tour.
Interestingly, for hardcore wrestling fans, Akira Hokuto actually had a film documentary of her made during that trip to North Korea, which I own. It’s actually the best film footage I’ve ever seen about life in North Korea and I would guess that no one on the Korean side thought of censoring a woman wrestler filming in the country.
It really was an interesting take on just how backward the country is. For the poster who commented on whether the North Koreans thought it was fake or real, Flair wrote that in his contacts with the attendees they did think it was real.
did you ever see the “VICE Guide to North Korea”??