Is the reason for the cancellation an infectious disease spreading in Japan?

On March 21, the Japanese and North Korean teams clashed at the National Stadium in the second round of Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North and Central America, with Japan winning 1-0.

This was a step forward towards the World Cup, but on the morning of the match, North Korea informed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that it would be difficult to hold the match, which was scheduled to be held in Pyongyang on March 26th, and even today, four days before the match, the venue has not yet been decided.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party of Korea, published an article dated the 21st reporting that the spread of fulminant hemolytic streptococcal disease, which has an extremely high mortality rate of around 30% in Japan, and measles is on the rise.

“North Korea appears to have taken measures to completely ban entry from Japan as a border control measure against these infectious diseases.

North Korea has imposed strict entry restrictions since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, but this was because the Kim Jong-un regime feared that if the coronavirus spread in North Korea, where the medical system is poor, it would cause a medical crisis that could shake the government. There may be a similar reason this time as well.” (South Korean government official familiar with the medical situation in North Korea)

However, it seems quite sudden that they started telling people not to come to Pyongyang while the national team was visiting Japan for a match and just five days before the scheduled date of the event in Pyongyang.

“The fact that severe streptococcal infections and measles were spreading in Japan was widely known in January. Why are they only starting to talk about it now?

One possibility is that on the afternoon of the 19th, after the North Korean representative arrived in Japan, South Korean media began to report on the spread of infection in Japan, quoting British media reports, and that this is what made North Korea aware of the situation and start to fear. However, is it possible that North Korea had not been able to grasp the situation in Japan until then…?” (Major newspaper foreign news reporter)