By Caroline Gluck BBC Seoul Correspondent

The North Korean football team are to play their rivals, South Korea, for the first time in 12 years.

The match will be staged at the newly built World Cup stadium in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on 8 September.

The idea to host the game was personally approved by North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Il.

An agreement to broadcast the event was signed on Thursday by the South Korean broadcaster, KBS, the Europe Korea Foundation and the Korea Football Association.

Illegal viewing

The decision to allow the teams to play each other was one of the agreements reached during a visit to Pyongyang last month by a delegation of the Europe-Korea Foundation.

It is hoped that football will help bring Koreans together

About 40 players and staff from the North Korean national side are expected to travel to Seoul on a direct flight.

It is hoped the event will pave the way for further inter-Korean sports exchanges.

The Communist state never responded to a peace offer from World Cup co-host South Korea to stage one or two tournament matches, nor to invitations for its football officials to attend the World Cup opening match in Seoul.

But the Communist state has been illegally airing edited highlights of World Cup matches.

KirchSport, the German media group which owns the World Cup broadcast rights, said that while it did not condone unlicensed broadcasts, it felt this situation was unique and that the broadcasts were a positive sign of how the power of the World Cup could bring down barrriers of all kinds.