A North Korean youth soccer team boycotted a match with its South Korean counterpart on Tuesday in an international soccer event in China, boding ill for future sport exchanges between the two Koreas, officials here said.

The U14 North Korean and South Korean squads were scheduled to play at a stadium located in China’s Yunnan Province. The game was part of the four-day event that kicked off on Tuesday.

The event was organized by a South Korean professional soccer team based in Incheon in cooperation with a soccer association in Yunnan. Four youth teams, which also included those from China and Japan, are participating in the event.

The North Korean players warmed up on the field until just before the game was to start, but sources said their head coach abruptly called them in, and they then left the stadium.

A North Korean team official reportedly said that they decided to boycott, in line with Pyongyang’s recently announced move to stop exchanges with South Korea.

The soccer event has been receiving a great deal of attention as it was the first sports exchange planned between the two Koreas since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Dec. 17. 

(Yonhap News)