North Korea Prize Money Frozen At Asian Football Tournament

North Korea prize money frozen at Asian football tournament

Tokyo,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Dec, 2017 ) :North Korea will not be entitled to any prize money at this month's East Asian football championships due to economic sanctions imposed on Pyongyang, tournament organisers have said.

Visiting North Korea kick off the men's competition against hosts Japan in Tokyo on Saturday in a politically charged clash played against the backdrop of a string of missile launches and the communist state's sixth nuclear test in September.

"Given the current international climate and based on United Nations resolutions, we have deemed that we will not be able to pay," Japan and East Asian football chief Kozo Tashima told local media.

Tashima credited the Japanese government for issuing travel visas to North Korea's footballers, stressing that the four-team East Asian championship represented an "opportunity to show that politics has no place in sport".

Officials from the two other competing countries, South Korea and China, supported the decision on North Korea's prize money, which is unlikely to lighten the mood before a potentially explosive opening fixture.