North Korea and Japan’s men’s soccer teams will face off in a World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang as scheduled later this month, in what will be the first international sporting event in the country since before the pandemic.

An Asian Football Confederation (AFC) spokesperson confirmed to NK News that the second-round qualification match will take place at the Kim Il Sung Stadium on March 26, five days after North Korea is scheduled to visit Tokyo to play Japan.

The confirmation appears to settle the question of whether the match would be relocated to a third country, after the AFC