Meanderer
Supreme Member
The North Korean flag is seen during the 19th Asian Games gold medal match between Japan and North Korea’s women’s soccer teams at Huanglong Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Oct. 6, 2023
"As two rival nations face off against each other to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one government is trying its best to keep its own fans away."
"On Tuesday, a statement released by Japan’s foreign ministry told Japanese soccer-watchers to refrain from traveling to see the qualifier against North Korea, scheduled for March 26 at Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang, “as part of measures against North Korea.”
"Japan has discouraged, but does not explicitly ban, its citizens from traveling to North Korea. In 2017, the foreign ministry issued an advisory asking citizens to “please refrain from traveling to North Korea for any purpose,” among other sanctions in response to nuclear weapons tests. Similar advisories had been issued, lifted, and reissued in years prior. The two countries do not have official diplomatic relations."
"The match next week follows a match between the two teams at Tokyo National Stadium on Thursday. Both teams are in a group with Syria and Myanmar as part of the second round of the Asian Federation’s qualification process for the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the U.S."
"The North Korean men’s soccer team arrived in Japan on Tuesday, having been granted exceptions to enter the country despite Japan’s ban on North Korean visitors that was reimposed in 2016. There are expected to be some supporters for the North Korean team at the match in Tokyo in the form of Japan’s ethnic Korean community. (When North Korea last participated in a World Cup finals tournament, in South Africa in 2010, it famously paid Chinese people to cheer in the stands, joining about 300 North Koreans “carefully recruited” by the government to attend as fans, according to the Los Angeles Times.)" (MORE)