Intro:

North Korea's preparations for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia began with a training session in China on Friday (26 December).

Script:

The North Korea football squad touched down in China ahea of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.

The team are based in South China's Hainan Province for a 10-day training camp ahead of the tournament in Australia.

The squad are training at the Jiade training base in the provincial capital Haikou, the same location they have used in the past decade for winter training.

Star player Jong Tae-se did not appear during Friday's training session, and the management wouldn't be drawn on whether he will participate in the Asian Cup.

The Suwon Samsung players has 14 goals in 33 appearances for the national team & will be desperate for their talisman to be fit for the tournament.

The squad will set off for Australia on January 4th, five days before the start of the tournament.

They are in Group B with China, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. And are the lowest ranked team within Group B by some fourty-eight places in the world rankings, sitting in 150th.