Exclusive: South Korean World Cup bid leader to support North Korea in South Africa

By David Owen

May 5 – One of the leaders of South Korea’s 2022 World Cup bid is planning to attend one of North Korea’s forthcoming World Cup matches, in a fresh indication of how the bid could help foster better relations between the two countries.

Han Sung-Joo, chairman of the Korea 2022 World Cup Bidding Committee, has told insideworldfootball that he plans to attend North Korea’s match against Brazil at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park stadium on June 15.

It will be the Asian team’s first match in a World Cup final tournament since it lost 3-5 to Portugal in a thrilling quarter-final encounter in England 44 years ago.

Word of Han’s plan comes five months after he revealed that a Korean World Cup could see matches taking place in both parts of the divided peninsula, saying: “If we can host a World Cup, we hope to have some games in North Korea.”

He added: “It would have a great effect on exchanges [between the two nations] and peace.”

South Korea’s team, which has been a regular qualifier for World Cup finals in recent times, will also be in South Africa, where it has been drawn in the same group as Brazil’s great rivals Argentina, as well as Nigeria and Greece.

Korea faces competition from Asian rivals Australia, Japan and Qatar, as well as the United States in the race to win the right to host the 2022 tournament.

Four European bids - from Belgium/Holland, England, Russia and Spain/Portugal – are also nominally in the running, although one of them is widely expected to win the simultaneous race for the 2018 World Cup, thereby eliminating the other three from contention for the 2022 competition.

South Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup – in which it progressed unexpectedly to the semi-finals before being knocked out by Germany – along with Japan.

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