Seoul refutes N.Korea´s food-poisoning claims

South Korean football officials on Monday ridiculed North Korean claims that its footballers were poisoned by Seoul before losing a World Cup qualifier last week.

“The North’s claims are groundless,” Park Il-Ki, a Korea Football Association (KFA) official, told AFP.

“The North’s team stayed at a hotel they chose during the game in Seoul. They had only food that their team doctor checked out. Their claims are really far-fetched. How can we be responsible?”

The North’s football body on Sunday accused Seoul of poisoning northern players who lost the April 1 match 1-0. The South’s victory puts it in the driving seat in Asian Group B.

North Korea before the game asked for a postponement, saying three players had fallen ill because of the food they had been served.

World football governing body FIFA ordered that the game go ahead as scheduled.

In Sunday’s statement, the North urged FIFA to review the match.

It said the food poisoning “was a product of a deliberate act perpetrated by adulterated foodstuff” and also blasted the Omani chief referee for disallowing a goal by the North Koreans.

“The match… turned into a theatre of plot-breeding and swindling,” the statement said.

Park said the KFA decided not to issue any statement in reply because such individual tit-for-tat responses do not conform to FIFA rules.

Kim Joo-Sung, the KFA’s international affairs department chief, told Yonhap news agency that matters related to hotels or food are the responsibility of the visiting team.

As to the dispute over the goal, Kim added: “North Korea can lodge an objection with FIFA and wait for a decision.”

The North’s statement came as the rest of the world was preoccupied with its controversial long-range rocket launch.

It took aim at South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, who is reviled by the North for his firmer line on cross-border relations.

“It is as clear as noonday that it (the conduct of the match) was a product of the Lee Myung-Bak group’s moves for confrontation with the DPRK (North) and a deliberate behaviour bred by the unsavoury forces instigated by it,” the statement said.