Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Two Koreas to face off on football field

1339967
1339967
minus
plus

SEOUL: North and South Korea face each other in a World Cup qualifier this week for their first ever competitive men’s match in Pyongyang, while talks on the North’s nuclear arsenal remain deadlocked.


The teams — with Tottenham’s star striker Son Heung-min included in the South Korean squad — are expected to step out onto Kim Il Sung Stadium turf on Tuesday.


It comes in the wake of a series of North Korean missile tests and after talks with the US over its weapons programmes broke down, with Pyongyang blaming a lack of “new and creative” offers from Washington.


Since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in February, Pyongyang has regularly excoriated Seoul.


It has ruled out prospects of inter-Korean dialogue, dismissing calls for engagement by the South’s President Moon Jae-in as “foolish”, while expressing fury over Seoul’s annual joint military drills with the US.


It is a far cry from the cross-border warmth of last year, when Moon seized on another sporting event — the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics — to broker the Pyongyang-Washington talks process and held three summits himself with Kim.


Now the North has even refused to engage in direct talks with the South on the logistics for the match and has only communicated with Seoul through the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).


The AFC dubbed the match “one of the most eagerly-anticipated fixtures” of the World Cup qualifiers, but just days before the game there was no indication live television coverage would be available.


It was also unclear whether anyone other than the South Korean team and support staff would be able to go to Pyongyang, let alone fans.


“We have sounded the North side out on such matters through diverse channels, but there has been no response yet,” a spokesman for the South’s unification ministry, which handles relations with the North, told reporters on Friday.


“We found it disappointing,” he said. Fifa said it was in “regular contact” with both South and North Korea over match preparations but did not give further details.


“Football has the unique power to bring people together in a spirit of celebration and fair play and we sincerely hope that this will be the case on 15 October in Pyongyang,” a Fifa spokesman said.


FLAG AND ANTHEM


The neighbours are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula divided by the Demilitarised Zone.


Contact between their peoples is restricted, with no direct telephone or postal links between the two.


Seoul requires its citizens to obtain official permission before going to the North, while Pyongyang imposes tight restrictions on the movement of its own people. Under the AFC’s operations manual for international games, the South Korean anthem must be played before Tuesday’s match and its flag flown throughout the game — both of them rarely seen or heard in the North. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon