North Korea and Japan are set to play their preliminary qualifying game for the 2014 Brazil World Cup in Pyongyang on the 15th of next month.
Although Japan had hoped the game would be played in a third world country because of ongoing political conflicts, North Korea agreed with FIFA that the game would be hosted in Pyongyang.
It has been 22 years since Japan last played a game in North Korea; a June, 1989 preliminary round game in the run up to the Italy World Cup of 1990.
The Japanese players and reporters are likely to stay at the Yanggakdo International Hotel next to Yanggakdo Stadium, which lies on an island in the center of the Taedong River.
According to Japanese media, North Korea has requested that the Japan Football Association limit the amount of Japanese supporters to 200-300 and reporters to 50.
Japan is currently leading the group with a record of two wins and one tie, while North Korea has one win and two losses, putting them third in Group C. North Korea lost 1-0 in the first game between the two teams in Saitama.
That game, itself the first between the two sides in Japan for six years, saw the North Korean soccer authorities forbid the Japanese media from interacting with the squad in five different ways, including by following them, announcing the location of their accommodation, entering their training location or attempting to make contact with the players, while the Japanese authorities forbade the North Koreans from going beyond the perimeters of their accommodation, training ground and the match stadium.
