Star player:
Jong Tae-Se

Previous appearances:
1966 (quarter-finals)

How they qualified
AFC
Mongolia (a)            4-1
Mongolia (h)            5-1
Jordan (a)               1-0
Korea Republic (h)    0-0
Turkmenistan (a)      0-0
Turkmenistan (h)      1-0
Jordan (h)                2-0
Korea Republic (a)     0-0
UAE (a)                   2-1
Korea Republic (h)     1-1
Iran (a)                    1-2
Saudi Arabia (h)        1-0
UAE (h)                   2-0
Korea Republic (a)     0-1
Iran (h)                   0-0
Saudi Arabia (a)        0-0

Chances:
Plenty of attention will fall on the North Koreans, who for political and social reasons will be one of the great curiosities of the finals. On the pitch, their qualification was secured thanks to their tight defence and while they are highly unlikely to get to the last 16, it is equally difficult to imagine them losing their shape at any point and getting hammered.

Strange but true
Head coach Kim Jong-hun provided the latest biast in an ongoing war of words when he claimed 3 of his players had suffered from deliberate food poisoning following his side’s 1-0 loss at the hands of South Korea in Seoul during qualifing.
The accusation followed an unsuccessful attempt by the North Koreansto have the game played at a neutral venue.