SEOUL, June 17 (AJP) -South Korea's closed-door training session in Mexico ahead of its second World Cup group match against Mexico was briefly disrupted by an unidentified drone intrusion, the Korea Football Association said Wednesday.
The incident took place during South Korea's private tactical session at the Chivas Verde Valle training facility in Zapopan, near Guadalajara, as the team prepared for its Group A match against Mexico at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Unlike the previous day's session, which was briefly opened to the media for about 15 minutes, Wednesday's roughly 90-minute session was fully closed to outsiders.
According to the KFA, the drone was detected while players were still going through warm-up drills, before the team had begun its main tactical training. Team officials said no tactical information was exposed.
Security staff at the training ground alerted Mexican military personnel stationed near the training site, who used signal-jamming equipment, forcing it down.
South Korean team security officials, local police and military personnel moved to recover the drone, but two men believed to be its operators had already collected it and fled the scene, according to the KFA.
The suspects' escape was captured by the South Korean team's video staff, but their identities and nationalities have not been confirmed.
A FIFA security officer assigned to the South Korean team asked Mexican police to investigate the incident. The KFA separately reported the matter to FIFA and requested measures to prevent a similar case from happening again.
A team official said it was too early to determine whether the drone was sent to gather information on South Korea's tactics, used by foreign media or flown by a member of the public.
"The situation ended during the warm-up stage before tactical training began, so there was no impact on the team's tactical security," the official said.
South Korea completed the training session after the incident. All 28 players, including forward Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City and defender Kim Tae-hyun of Kashima Antlers, took part along with two training partners.
Korea will face Mexico in its second Group A match at 10 a.m. Friday (0100 GMT) at Estadio Guadalajara in Zapopan.
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