N. Korea-Malaysia football match postponed yet again

PETALING JAYA: The football match between North Korea and Malaysia in Pyongyang, which is supposed to take place on Oct 5, has been postponed yet again.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in a statement on Thursday said it had decided to postpone the 2019 Asian Cup Group B qualifying match in Pyongyang after they were informed by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) that the Foreign Ministry had issued a travel ban on Malaysians to North Korea.

The AFC had referred the matter to the appropriate committee to decide on the future status of this match.

The Foreign Ministry had announced that all Malaysians were banned from travelling to North Korea until further notice.

The decision was made in view of the "escalation of tensions" in the Korean peninsula and related developments arising from the hermit kingdom's missile tests.

The North Korea-Malaysia match was first scheduled to be held at the Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang on March 28.

But FAM requested for the match to be changed to a neutral venue following a diplomatic crisis caused by the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea ruler Kim Jong-un, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Feb 13.

However, on May 17, the AFC announced that it would be postponed to Oct 5, due to the geo-political tension on the Korean peninsula.