JAPAN: It was hardly the most promising atmosphere for a soccer game: looming economic sanctions, an unrelenting war of words between two old Cold War enemies, and the kind of security normally reserved for mass political demonstrations.
But despite fears of trouble, last night's World Cup qualifier between North Korea and Japan passed off peacefully in Saitama Stadium as Japan won 2-1, watched over by 2,000 police - 20 times the usual security for a soccer match in this mostly hooligan-free country.
Japanese TV claimed the North Korean side was under intense personal pressure from Kim Jong Il to win, and had been offered luxury cars and other bonuses as incentives.
The match was preceded by pleas for "sportsmanship" from government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda, who said it was a "sporting event and has nothing to do with politics". But politics and the ghosts of the past resonated throughout the 63,000-seater stadium during the emotionally changed singing of national anthems.
The kimigayo (Emperor's Reign) - the same dirge that rang in the ears of millions of Japanese troops during their brief but brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula - was greeted by stony silence by the roughly 4,000 North Korean fans, separated from the Japanese supporters by rows of empty seats. Ultra-nationalist Japanese activists picketed the stadium, demanding the return of Japanese kidnap victims.
North Korea has been the target of 28 months of vitriol in the Japanese media since Kim Jong Il admitted that his spies abducted over a dozen Japanese citizens during the 1970s and 80s. Five of the abductees have been allowed to return to Japan, but further talks to normalise bilateral relations frozen by years of Cold War hostility remain stalled on the still murky fate of the rest.
Even as Mr Hosoda spoke, hardliners in his own party, the Liberal Democrats, were clamouring for tough sanctions to bring North Korea to heel on the abductions issue, while Pyongyang used the occasion of the World Cup match to remind Japan of its own undigested history.
A report issued through an official state newspaper said Japan had committed "the most hideous human rights abuses in history" during the second World War when it forced thousands of Korean men and women in slavery.
The report is likely to inflame rather than dampen demands for sanctions, which many in Japan believe are inevitable, despite hopes that last night's match might help reduce tensions.