The Japan Football Association's president said Thursday that North Korea will not host an upcoming World Cup qualifier between the countries originally scheduled for Pyongyang.
"A game will not be played in Pyongyang," Kozo Tashima said after Japan defeated North Korea 1-0 at Tokyo's National Stadium in the first of their two Asian qualifying Group B encounters.
A new venue has not been decided, and it is unclear if the match will take place.
Earlier this month, the Asian Football Confederation informed the Japan Football Association that the March 26 match between the two teams would go ahead in Pyongyang.
But North Korea appears to have altered the stance following reports in the country's media concerning "a malignant infectious disease" in Japan, an apparent reference to a rising number of fulminant hemolytic streptococcal infections in the country.
The Samurai Blue had planned to arrive in Pyongyang next Monday, the eve of the second match, after training in Beijing.
Last month, the relocation of a women's Olympic football qualifier between Japan and North Korea from Pyongyang to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was finalized just three days before the match.
