North Korea take on Japan - on the football pitch
North Korea rallied a cheering squad in Tokyo Saturday evening as the hermit nation's men’s team took on Japan in the East Asia Football Federation championships amid growing nuclear tensions and international concern.
On the pitch, North Korea lost 1-0 to an injury-time goal at the end of a closely fought match at the Ajinomoto Stadium, but their supporters said the defeat was merely a minor hiccup in their campaign to be the most powerful force in Asian soccer.
Japan this week announced it was considering acquiring medium-range cruise missiles capable of striking North Korea in response to renewed threats from Pyongyang.
But despite the animosity between the two countries, there was very little approaching hostility from the Japanese fans attending the game.
Displays of anger at North Korea’s ongoing development of nuclear weapons and missiles happened before kick-off.
A middle-aged Japanese man carrying a “hinomaru” rising sun flag and wearing a matching t-shirt was quickly ushered away from the North Korean entrance to the stadium.
Ultimately, the biggest setback for North Korea was the score.
Mr Bun, an accountant from Yokohama who supports the present North Korean regime, had confidently predicted a comfortable 2-0 win for the visitors. Students from universities in Japan that similarly swear allegiance to Pyongyang expected a similar result.
Around 2,000 North Korea fans filled the away end, many in the red of the national team and with team t-shirts, or wearing the regime's potent symbol of the the Cholima winged horse on their backs.
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None had made the journey from North Korea for the game as Japan has a travel ban on anyone journeying between the two nations, so the stands were made up of North Koreans living in Japan.
There are tens of thousands of North Koreans in Japan who are still loyal to the regime of Kim Jong-Un and refuse to believe reports about human rights abuses or the abject poverty that their countrymen live in.
The vast majority at Saturday's game were students at North Korean high schools and universities. A North Korean official told The Telegraph that students from schools as far away as Osaka and northern Japan had been mobilised to attend the match.
Singing patriotic songs urging their players to “fight”, they also chanted for their heroes‘ every touch.
Tuneful and mostly folksy, the songs are as aggressive as those sung at a British game, with fans calling on the players to “destroy” their opposition.
