SEOUL, Aug 21 (Reuters) - FIFA have moved next month's World Cup qualifier between the two Koreas to Shanghai because the North had refused to play the anthem or fly the flag of its Cold War rival.
Experts have said North Korea will not allow patriotic
displays from the South because they could undermine the
messages from the communist state's propaganda machine.
FIFA.com
has listed the venue of the Sept. 10 match as Shanghai in China
and not in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, where it was
originally scheduled.
An earlier qualifying tie between the two Koreas,
technically still at war, originally set for Pyongyang in March
was moved to Shanghai for the same reasons.
The teams played out a scoreless draw.
In the return match, South Korea allowed for the display of
the North's flag and then played its anthem when it hosted the
North in Seoul. The match also finished 0-0 and both teams
advanced to the next qualifying round.
'North Korea has apparently given up its home-field
advantage,' said an official with the South Korean Football
Association.
The two Koreas, who have yet to sign a peace treaty to
officially end their 1950-53 war, state in their respective
constitutions that the government on their side of the heavily
armed border is the rightful one for the entire peninsula.
'The two associations have been discussing this for a long
time,' FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told reporters in
Beijing. 'They have decided to play on a neutral ground.'
'It is not us, it is the two national associations who have
decided.'
Tensions have flared between the two Koreas after a new
South Korean president took office in February and angered
Pyongyang by saying what once had been a free flow of aid would
now be tied to progress the North makes in getting rid of its
nuclear weapons.
The two Koreas did not march together at the opening
ceremony of the Beijing Olympics as they have done in several
recent Games.
