Relations are not about to relax any time soon. On Thursday, Japan hosted North Korea in a first qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup. After the match, Kozo Tasima, president of the Japanese football federation, delivered surprising information to the media present on site.
“The North Koreans told us that the match could not take place in Pyongyang. They asked us during half-time if we could organize (the meeting) in Japan,” says the manager.
“I told them that this request was so sudden that I could not immediately answer them in the affirmative,” continued Kozo Tasima, after the victory of the Japanese players (1-0). “I told them it would take us at least two or three days to give them an answer, I pointed out to them that it was complicated. »
The match in Pyongyang would have been the first played by the Japanese in North Korea since 2011
The match in Pyongyang would have been the first played in North Korea by the Japanese since 2011. Kozo Tashima did not explain why North Korea now said it was unable to host this meeting, but the agency Japanese news Kyodo cited fears linked to a bacterial outbreak in Japan.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had for its part earlier this week advised its nationals not to go to North Korea for the meeting, arguing that this country had a “hostile view of Japan”.
Relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang are tense due to historical disputes dating back to Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula (1910-1945) and recent missile tests carried out by North Korea above Japanese territory.
