Japan has issued a stern warning to soccer followers, advising them towards touring to “hostile” North Korea for the upcoming World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang.
The Tokyo Foreign Ministry has “strongly requested the general public to refrain” from attending the match on March 26, which marks the primary assembly between the 2 sides in North Korea since 2011.
“As you know, North Korea takes a hostile view of Japan and travel is not recommended for the general public,” it mentioned on X, previously generally known as Twitter.
Japan and North Korea play in Tokyo on Thursday as a part of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup earlier than the return fixture subsequent week.
Japan’s long-standing recommendation for its nationals is to not journey to North Korea, nevertheless it doesn’t expressly forbid them from doing so. The two international locations should not have diplomatic relations.
It was unclear what number of followers, if any, would attempt to journey. They would want a North Korean visa to take action.
However, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that 14 authorities officers and a small variety of media retailers will accompany the Japan staff to the match.
Last month, the primary leg of their girls’s playoff for the Paris Olympics was switched from the North Korean capital to impartial floor in Saudi Arabia.
Relations have lengthy been dogged by points together with compensation for Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945 and, extra just lately, by Pyongyang’s firing of missiles over Japanese territory.
The abduction by North Korean brokers of Japanese residents within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties – compelled to coach spies in Japanese language and customs – has additionally lengthy been a serious level of rivalry.
Thursday’s match in Tokyo was anticipated to see a large contingent of North Korean supporters from amongst Japan’s long-standing ethnic Korean group of about 300,000 individuals.
Most are descendants of civilians taken from their properties throughout Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula.
Source: www.dailysabah.com