South Korean soccer team tells of ‘rough’ match in Pyongyang

South Korean national soccer team player Son Heung-min answers a reporter's question upon his arrival after the soccer match against North Korea, at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. North Korea held South Korea to a 0-0 draw Tuesday in a World Cup qualifying soccer match played in an empty stadium in Pyongyang, but specific details of the game weren't immediately available. South Korean soccer officials were unable to watch a telecast of the historic game at Kim Il Sung Stadium and South Korean spectators and media were denied entry. South Korea’s national soccer team has described its World Cup qualifier against North Korea in Pyongyang as a “rough” and strange match.

The historic match Tuesday ended in a scoreless draw at huge Kim Il Sung Stadium, which was empty of spectators. Tottenham striker Son Heung-min said Thursday he would long remember the Pyongyang match as an unusual experience and claimed the South Korean players were lucky to avoid injury against the North Koreans, who he said were “very sensitive and rough.”The team’s general manager Choi Young-il says the South Korean soccer association will discuss whether to submit a complaint to FIFA over what he described as North Korea’s failure to properly accommodate the visiting team and decision to block media and spectators.