North Korea’s abrupt cancellation of a World Cup qualifier with Japan recently was motivated both several factors, including its diplomatic strategy toward Japan, Daily NK has learned.
“The soccer game was canceled out of concern that revealing too much about the domestic situation might not have a positive impact on our international image. Another reason was that we’re still working on our diplomatic approach to Japan,” a high-level source in North Korea told Daily NK on Apr. 12, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In other words, North Korean authorities were worried that the disorderly streets of Pyongyang and its shops and residents would be shown to the world by foreign reporters in the country to cover the qualifier.
North Korea also appears to have concluded that it would not be in North Korea’s interest to have high-level Japanese officials visit North Korea for the soccer game, given the ongoing discussion of a possible Pyongyang-Tokyo summit.
North Korea was originally scheduled to play Japan at Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Stadium on Mar. 26 in the fourth Group B match of the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup (to be held in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.). But five days before the match, Pyongyang unilaterally informed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that it could not host the match and asked the AFC to choose another venue.
The AFC explored the possibility of holding the North Korea-Japan match at a neutral venue, but ultimately decided that it could not protect the athletes and fans at such short notice and canceled the match. As a result, a FIFA disciplinary committee met on Mar. 24 and handed North Korea an automatic 0-3 defeat for forfeiting the match.
North Korea did not say exactly why it canceled the match, and the Japanese press even speculated that it was because of an outbreak of Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome (STSS) in Japan.
But North Korea had given no indication that it intended to cancel the home game when the AFC conducted an on-site inspection in Pyongyang in early March.