Seoul (AFP)

The two Koreas clash Tuesday on the road to the 2022 World Cup football in a historic shock. But this exceptional match in Pyongyang between two technically still-warring nations is taking place from almost all foreign eyes.

There will indeed be in the Kim Il Sung stadium at kickoff neither South Korean fans nor foreign journalists. And the match will not be broadcast live.

The only echo of this match - a first in the North as part of a men's football competition - will come from the sites of FIFA and the Asian Confederation (AFC), authorized to give the goals and substitutions.

Hence the immense frustration of South Korean fans who will have to wait several days before viewing a shock that the AFC has legitimately presented as "one of the most awaited meetings" for years.

- The North has promised a DVD -

"North Korea has promised to give our delegation before it leaves a DVD containing all the images of the match," the South Korean Unification Ministry, responsible for inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement.

The South Korean team, which includes Tottenham star Son Heung-min, arrived in the North Korean capital on Monday, accompanied simply by his coach, Portugal's Paulo Bento, and his coaching staff.

Before flying to Pyongyang, this delegation had to leave their mobile phones at the South Korean embassy in China. And the contacts have since been extremely complicated.

"Nothing is guaranteed in terms of communication, so we have to use what we have at hand at the moment," said an official of the South Korean Federation (KFA), stating that the exchanges were carried out notably by email.

Paulo Bento's match watch press conference on Monday night at Kim Il Sung Stadium was attended by five North Korean journalists and two KFA members.

They had to go back to their hotel to find the internet connection and send a report to their federation.

The Unification Ministry says that Fifa President Gianni Infantino, who has arrived in Pyongyang, will be in the stadium for this clash between the top two in Group H of the second phase of the Asian qualifiers.

He will be one of the few foreign spectators, as North Korea has refused to allow South Korean fans to come.

- The North "should be excluded" -

The peninsula had in 2018 been the theater of a spectacular relaxation. But since the fiasco in February of the second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang has increased criticism of Seoul.

The North rejected any idea of ​​reviving the inter-Korean dialogue while condemning the recent military maneuvers between South Korea and the United States.

The match came amid renewed missile testing by North Korea, which left the negotiating table in Sweden earlier this month with the United States.

It is therefore far from the effusations of 2018, when South Korean President Moon Jae-in took advantage of the Pyeongchang Olympics to break the ice and meet the North Korean leader three times in a row.

The South Korean fans, they do not fade against this blackout.

"A match that is not broadcast live does not mean anything," said a fan on social networks, while another said that Pyongyang, if there was no retransmission, "should be excluded International Federations ".

For decades, the North refused to host inter-Korean matches, preferring to relocate them to China.

The first in North Korea was a friendly meeting in 1990 to promote reunification. Both teams had then sported the same flag representing the whole of the peninsula.

The first competitive football match in North Korea only takes place in 2017, between the women's selections.

© 2019 AFP