2024-03-20 13:40:32
On Wednesday, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a tweet on the “X” website urging fans of its country’s soccer team not to attend a soccer match with North Korea, which it described as “hostile,” next week. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said, “North Korea takes a hostile view toward Japan, and we do not advise the general public to travel” there. Relations between the two countries are tense due to Pyongyang’s ballistic missile program, as well as the issue of compensation for the harsh Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
Published on: 03/20/2024 – 14:40
2 minutes
Within the framework of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appealed to supporters Football team The Japanese will not go to “hostile” North Korea next week to attend a match between the two countries.
The ministry said on its account on the “X” website (formerly Twitter), “The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly requests that the general public refrain” from attending the match scheduled for March 26, which is the first between the two teams in North Korea since 2011. It added, “As you know, Korea “The North takes a hostile view towards Japan and we do not advise the general public to travel.”
Japan and North Korea will play in Tokyo on Thursday as part of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, before the return match on March 26.
Japan has long advised its citizens once morest traveling to North Korea, but does not explicitly prohibit them from doing so. There are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.
It is not clear how many fans want to travel, although they need an entry visa to North Korea to do so.
Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) reported that 14 government officials will accompany the Japanese team in the match, in addition to a small number of media.
The women’s team match between the two teams qualifying for the Paris Olympics was moved from the North Korean capital to neutral territory in Saudi Arabia last month at the request of the Japanese Federation to its Asian counterpart, due to the lack of transparency regarding operational matters and the scarcity of flights.
Relations between the two countries were affected by issues including compensation for the harsh Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, and finally Pyongyang’s launching of missiles into Japanese territory.
On the other hand, Thursday’s match in Tokyo is expected to witness a large participation of North Korean fans among the Korean ethnic community in Japan, which numbers regarding 300,000 people.
France 24/AFP
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