One of their Group B rivals, alongside Lebanon and Hong Kong, was Malaysia. Both games had been postponed following a diplomatic fallout when the half brother of North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un, was assassinated in a bizarre plot using nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur Airport. No one knew when they would be played. Or even if they ever could be played. At one point, it looked like this game might not take place either. Two days previously, North Korea tested its sixth nuclear bomb, its largest to that point, which would cause political unease in Washington, D.C., Seoul and Tokyo. But not in Pyongyang.
