NKorean team get awards for WC qualification: KCNA

North Korea has given awards to its national football squad for qualifying for next year’s World Cup — the first time the team has made the tournament in more than four decades, state media said Tuesday.

Merit citations, medals or watches inscribed with the name of leader Kim Jong-Il were awarded to players, coaching staff and officials Monday, the Korean Central News Agency said.

The North Koreans qualified for the 2010 World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 11 in South Africa, with a 0-0 draw away at Saudi Arabia last June.

It marks the communist state’s first advancement to the playoff stages since the 1966 World Cup, during which the North Koreans beat mighty Italy on the way to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Portugal.

Pyongyang’s Korean Central Broadcasting Station, monitored by Yonhap news agency, on Tuesday said Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, gave the awards to players.

The players “brought glory to the homeland and encouraged our military and people who are in a great struggle to build a thriving nation,” it said.

The players and coaching staff also received the honorary titles of “people’s athlete” or “merited athlete,” it added.

The squad travelled to the western French city of Nantes last month where they played out a scoreless draw with second division club FC Nantes.

North Korea will host a friendly with a Brazilian professional side, Clube Atletico Sorocaba, at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang on Thursday.