2002 FIFA World Cup qualification failed to qualify for the 2006 finals: Belgium, Cameroon, China, Denmark, Ireland, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, Uruguay." The 32 spots available in the 2002 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: A total of 193 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 777 qualifying matches were played, and 2452 goals were scored (an average of 3.17 per match). The Asian Football Confederation was allocated four and half qualifying berths for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, South Korea and Japan, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving two and half spots open for
South Korea at the FIFA World Cup CST () All times local CEST () All times local CEST (UTC+2) All times local KST () All times local CEST () All times local SAST () South Korea at the FIFA World Cup This is a record of South Korea's results at the FIFA World Cup. South Korea have appeared in the FIFA World Cup on ten occasions in 1954 and 1986 to 2018. Their best ever performance is a fourth place in the 2002 tournament co-hosted at home soil and at Japan. This made them the first ever team to end in fourth place in its own World