North Korea recently notified the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that it will not attend the upcoming World Cup qualifier match in Seoul next month, a South Korean unification ministry official said Tuesday.

Initially, North and South Korean soccer players were slated for a match on June 7. The official said that the AFC hopes Pyongyang will reverse its decision.

“I understand that North Korea expressed to the AFC its intention not to participate, but [Pyongyang] was asked to reconsider,” the official said.

The remarks confirm earlier reports citingSouth Korea’s Korea Football Association (KFA), which said that North Korea sent