SEOUL, Oct 9: South Korea said Tuesday it will impose even tighter security for next year’s World Cup finals after the United States and China qualified for football’s premier event.

Japan, which will co-host the World Cup finals, also said it would boost its security budget by one quarter to 2.8 billion yen (US$23 million).

South Korea had already announced measures such as no-fly zones over the country’s 10 World Cup stadiums following the Sept 11 suicide attacks in New York and Washington.

But South Korean National Police Agency commissioner general Lee Moo-Young said qualification by the United States and China over the weekend and the US-led air strikes on Afghanistan “clearly added to the need to strengthen security”.

However, Lee said he did not think there would be any major problems policing the 32-nation event despite fears of terrorist attacks being added to existing concerns over hooliganism.

Both South Korea and Japan are set to put on one of the biggest police operations ever mounted during the month-long football extravaganza that kicks off in Seoul on May 30.

Following the strikes on Afghanistan, South Korea’s police force was put on top alert Monday and security was stepped up at all potential American targets in the country — home to some 37,000 US troops.

Despite heightened security concerns, the Korean World Cup Organising Committee (KOWOC) said it was going ahead with a match against the United States on Dec 9 to mark the opening of a new stadium at Sogwipo on the island of Cheju.

However, it acknowledged that additional planning would be required.

“It would be only natural that we will have to look at preparations again after the US qualification,” said a KOWOC spokesman, while declining to give details.

South Korea and Japan have both said they will take a final look at security preparations after the December 1 draw for the finals.

The Korean national police chief said the 800 players at the tournament and 15 top FIFA officials will get personal guards.

“There will be no problem,” Lee told AFP. “From the time they get off the plane until the time they get on it again to leave Korea they will be protected.”

In Tokyo, a spokesman for the Japanese World Cup Organising Committee, JAWOC, also said no major security problems were expected as a result of the United States qualifying.

“We talked about terrorism at today’s executive meeting in order to work out unfailing measures. We don’t have to be unreasonably scared,” JAWOC president Shoh Nasu said.

However, JAWOC general secretary Yasuhiko Endoh said an increase in Japan’s security budget would be necessary to provide additional security guards, metal detectors, more sophisticated identification cards and other measures.

Among other moves already announced by Seoul after the terror attacks in the United States was the establishment of no-fly zones over the 10 South Korean stadiums to counter any similar suicide plane hijackings.

SWAT teams and joint police-military forces will be on duty at stadiums, while security will be stepped up at sensitive installations near stadiums such as chemical plants and power stations.

Immigration procedures will also be tightened at airport and ports and South Korea’s national intelligence chief has said security forces already have a list of with some 1,500 potential terrorists who will be prevented from entering the country.

Meanwhile, a US women’s golf tour event that was to be held in South Korea next week has been cancelled following the US-led military action in Afghanistan.

The US$1.5 million LPGA was to have been held from Oct 19-21 on the resort island of Cheju, but the LPGA and the South Korean sponsors decided to postpone the event for one year due to safety concerns.—AFP