AFC - An AFC delegation, led by its Director of Competitions, Carlo Nohra, and its marketing partners World Sport Football (WSF), had completed their report on North Korea's preparation to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification matches. The report had been made following the group's visit to North Korea last week.

"We are happy with the positive report of the delegation. There's a good choice of hotels for the teams as well as other facilities. The DPR Korea FA has promised to assist with telecommunications facilities, such as mobile phones and match signals to enable the matches to be televised live to Asia and other parts of the world. The DPR Korea FA is very cooperative and we are confident that they will do everything possible to ensure that all the matches hosted in Pyongyang will be successful,"commented AFC General Secretary Dato Peter Velappan.

Matches for North Korea will be played at the Kim Il Sung stadium which has a capacity of 150,000. The pitch though is an artificial one. Nonetheless, "teams will have an opportunity to train on this surface upon their arrival in Pyongyang," Velappan assured.

DPR Korea has been grouped with Japan, IR Iran and Bahrain.