North Korea and South Korea play out bizarre and violent World Cup qualifier: ‘It was like war’

Clips shared by Swedish ambassador from behind-closed-doors game show players scuffling on field and soldiers saluting national anthem

South Korea captain Son Heung-min (right) in action during Tuesday’s match against North Korea in Pyongyang (EPA)

South Korean officials have described a football match against North Korea in Pyongyang as “like a war”, with players saying they were just happy to return to Seoul without suffering any injuries.

The two countries, which technically are still at war since a 1950s conflict ended without a peace treaty, played out a 0-0 draw in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday, the first competitive match between the neighbours on North Korean soil.

But if the result was dull on paper, the circumstances surrounding the fixture were quite extraordinary – and the full details of what happened only started to emerge on Thursday as the South Korea team arrived back home.

Without providing an explanation or advance warning to their opponents, the North Korean hosts decided the match would be played in front of empty stands in a 50,000-capacity stadium.

North Korea also refused to allow the match to be screened live. And a planned delayed broadcast on Thursday by South Korean TV was cancelled, after video footage provided by the North turned out to be too poor quality.

On the field, the North Korean players were accused of playing in an excessively aggressive manner, jumping into their opponents with knees up and throwing out their elbows and hands while shielding the ball.

Some of the only video footage circulating of the game actually comes from Sweden’s ambassador to North Korea, Joachim Bergström, who was among a handful of foreign officials permitted to attend the game alongside Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Sweden is one of few countries to enjoy good diplomatic relations with the North.

Mr Bergström posted short clips of the match to Twitter, one of which showed South Korea captain and Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min breaking up a large scuffle between players from both sides.

“It’s too bad we didn’t win. To be honest, the game was so tough that I think we were very lucky already to be back with no one injured,” Son told reporters on arrival at Seoul’s Incheon airport.

Son accused the North Korean players of being “sensitive and aggressive” and swearing a lot during the match. “We could hear many very offensive curses from the other side,” he said.

The team’s general manager Choi Young-il, a former defender who is also the vice president of the South’s Korea Football Association (KFA), said: “It was like war.

“They would use everything from elbows to hands to knees to fend off our players. It was really difficult. I have never seen something like this in football before.”

Mr Bergström dismissed the bad-tempered nature of the match as “emotions running high”. Other clips he shared showed both national anthems being played, with North Korean soldiers dotted throughout the empty stadium standing to attention and saluting on the North’s turn.

Another clip showed an attack by South Korea, on paper by far the better team, ending in an offside decision.

Fifa’s official report from the game hardly reflected its aggressive nature, stating that each side received just two yellow cards. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency published only a brief match report, saying the “game of attacks and counterattacks ended in a draw 0-0”.

But Mr Infantino later issued a statement saying he was “disappointed to see there were no fans in the stands”.

“We were surprised by this and by several issues related to its live broadcast and problems with visas and access for foreign journalists,” Mr Infantino said. International sports reporters were also barred from attending.

Some analysts have suggested North Korea decided to bar home fans because it did not want to allow South Korea’s supporters to travel to the game, while at the same time preferring to avoid accusations of creating an unfair environment for the match.

Others, as well as Son himself, said it could be because officials wanted to avoid the potential for thousands of North Koreans to witness their country in a humiliating defeat – Kim Jong-un, the North’s dictator, is known to be a big sports fan.

Son said he wasn’t surprised to see the stadium empty. “It rather made me think that [the North Koreans] thought us as a strong team,” he said.

Either way, the circumstances of the match reflect poor relations between the two countries, particularly since the South attempted to disconnect its own attempts to improve inter-Korean trade and cooperation from nuclear talks involving its ally the US.

North Korea is adamant that Washington be involved in talks so that it can leverage its increasingly sophisticated nuclear arsenal in exchange for more sweeping international sanctions relief.

South Korea’s unification minister Kim Yeon-chul, the government’s leading official on matters relating to the North, told parliament on Thursday that the way Pyongyang handled the game was “very disappointing” and reflected the current stalemate in talks.

The two sides will have to wait until 4 June to face each other again for the return fixture in Seoul, a match that could prove crucial with the teams tied on 7 points at the top of Group H. The other teams in the 2022 qualifying group are Lebanon, Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka.