NORTH Korean football officials will visit South Korea later this week to attend a meeting on regional football issues, an official with Seoul’s football governing body said Tuesday.

An official with the Korea Football Association (KFA) said four North Korean officials will visit South Korea’s southern city of Busan to attend an East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) function.

The EAFF executive committee meeting and its congress will hold on Friday.

The official said four North Koreans, including EAFF Vice President Han Un-gyong, will take a flight via Beijing to Gimhae International Airport in Busan on Thursday.

The North Koreans are expected to return home on Saturday.

“North Korean officials are coming to South Korea as one of the 10 EAFF members,” the KFA official said. “Since South Korea will chair the EAFF from this year, the meetings are going to be held in the country.”

The North Koreans’ visit comes after the two Koreas shared a moment of peace at the Feb. 9 to Feb. 25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

They also shared moments during the March 9 to March 18 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics in the South.

It is yet to be decided whether KFA President Chung Mong-gyu and Han will have a separate meeting to discuss football exchanges between the two Koreas.

But such speculation is rising as the icy situation on the Korean Peninsula appears to have thawed following the Winter Games in PyeongChang.

South Korea will host the 2019 EAFF E-1 Football Championship, following its rotational order of hosting the four-nation tournament.

The E-1 Football Championship, previously known as the East Asian Cup, started in 2003.

It is a four-team round-robin tournament held every two or three years.

– Mar. 27, 2018 @ 12:35 GMT |

BIE