S Korea off to Pyongyang for qualifier
BEIJING: South Korea footballers departed for Pyongyang yesterday to play a World Cup qualifier against North Korea amid deadlocked talks over the North’s nuclear arsenal.
The two teams — with Tottenham’s star forward Son Heung-Min included in the South Korea squad — will face each other at the Kim Il Sung Stadium today.
This will be the first competitive men’s football game between the two sides to be held in Pyongyang, and has raised hopes for new momentum in ties between the two Koreas.
But Pyongyang refused to hold direct talks with Seoul on the logistics for the match, denying South Korean fans and journalists permission to travel with the team.
“It’s much better to play in a packed stadium rather than an empty one, but I think we’ll be able to play a good match if we use it as motivation,” said defender Kim Min-Jae before boarding a flight to Pyongyang at Beijing airport after arriving from Incheon.
The South Korean footballers were accompanied by a delegation of 55 people, limited to players, coaches and staff.
Broadcasters in the South said that plans to air the match live had fallen apart, with some media reporting that there may be attempts to carry the North Korean feed.
The match comes in the wake of a series of North Korean missile tests that raised tensions in the region, and after the breakdown of talks with the United States over Pyongyang’s weapons programmes.
Meanwhile, South Korea coach Paulo Bento has told his players to be wary of a counter-attacking North Korea side.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean war ended with a truce rather than a peace treaty.
“North Korea are a physical and aggressive team, and they can be especially dangerous on counter-attacks,” Yonhap news agency quoted Bento as saying.
“But North Korea also have holes that we can exploit, and I think we’re prepared to do just that.”
Both teams have won their opening two games in Asia’s second round of qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar, with South Korea notching up an 8-0 win over Sri Lanka on Thursday having already defeated Turkmenistan.
North Korea, meanwhile, beat Lebanon in Pyongyang in their opening game of the campaign before securing a narrow victory over the Sri Lankans to stand level on six points with their neighbours.