N. Korean football team to hold friendly with Brazilian club

SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's national football team will hold a
friendly with a Brazilian professional club next month as part of its
preparations for the 2010 World Cup finals, a businessman here who helped arrange
the match said Monday.

The Nov. 5 match with Club Atletico Sorocaba will be held at the May Day Stadium
in Pyongyang, said Park Sang-kwon, president of Pyeonghwa Motors Corp. that runs
a factory in North Korea. Both the Brazilian club and the motor company are owned
by the Unification Church founded by South Korean Rev. Moon Sun-myung.
"North Korea has high expectations for the World Cup," Park said. "The Brazilian
team are a strong foreign team for the North, so this match is quite meaningful
for them."
Park, a U.S. citizen born in South Korea, said he will also travel to Pyongyang
on Saturday to take care of final preparations and his firm's business issues.
After the match with the Sao Paulo-based Atletico Sorocaba, North Korea is set up
to face off with other foreign teams to sharpen its skills, he added.
North Korea qualified for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa for the
first time since 1966. Earlier this month, its national team traveled to the
western French city of Nantes to hold a friendly with second-league club FC
Nantes.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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