North Korea withdrew from the upcoming matches of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, announced the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Sunday.
"The Asian Football Confederation confirms today [Sunday] the withdrawal of the Football Association of the DPR Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) from the Asian qualifying phase for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar," announced the AFC in a statement.
While it did not give a reason for the decision, South Korean media reported a possible withdrawal by Pyongyang due to concern over the coronavirus.
Due to the pandemic, most of the matches in the second round of the AFC World Cup qualifying tournament were postponed until June.
Last month, the AFC announced that it would change the tournament format so that matches in the same group would be played in a single host country.
South Korea was chosen as the host for the matches in Group H, which includes both Koreas, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka.
North Korea was fourth in the group, just one point behind the leader Turkmenistan. And the North Koreans still had three matches to play. AFP
🚨 BREAKING🚨
— #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) May 16, 2021
🇰🇵 DPR Korea withdraw from #AsianQualifiers!https://t.co/1M6mXpQFe2