Two Koreas draw 0-0 in first match for 12 years
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-05 09:09

National teams from China, Japan, North Korea and South Korea are playing in men's and women's events at three venues in South Korea from July 31 to August 7. Each team has three matches and whoever tops the table is the winner.

Earlier in the same stadium, South Korea's women beat North Korea 1-0 with a 77th-minute strike from Park Eun-jung.

TENSIONS HIGH

Regional tensions have been uncommonly high, not just because of North Korea's declared nuclear weapons arsenal, which the four Asian countries are discussing with the United States and Russia at six-party talks in the Chinese capital.

China and South Korea have criticised Japan over its war past, Seoul has protested to Tokyo about Japanese claims to a clutch of disputed islets and both Koreas are suspicious about China's motives for reassessing history in their back yard.

North and South Korea's relations have improved in recent years but they are technically still at war and the peninsula is divided by the Cold War-style Demilitarised Zone.

In a sign of how frozen relations were, South Korea first played the North at soccer in a men's Asian Youth Cup semi-final in 1976 -- more than two decades after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce but not a full peace treaty.

It was another two years before the full international sides met for the first time; a goalless draw at the Asian Games.

The last encounter between the two teams was on December 28, 1993, when the South beat the North 3-0 in a 1994 World Cup qualifier in Doha, Qatar.

Including Thursday's draw, the South has won 5 of the 9 full internationals against the North, drawn 3 and lost 1.

On Wednesday, in the South Korean city of Taejon, Japan came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with China and deny the Chinese revenge for a bitter defeat a year ago.

Japan coach Zico fielded a patchwork line-up, replacing all of his starters from the 1-0 loss to North Korea in their opening match on Sunday. China drew 1-1 with South Korea in their opener.

There was no repeat on Sunday of the March crowd trouble in Pyongyang that forced the North Koreans to play a World Cup qualifier against Japan behind closed doors in June.

In a twist that would not have been lost on the North Koreans, the referee for Thursday's North-South match was Iran's Mohsen Ghahremani. It was after Iran beat North Korea 2-0 in Pyongyang in March that there was unprecedented fan violence.

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