The Korea Football Association has promoted assistant soccer coach Pim Verbeek to head coach of the national team.

The association on Monday announced that it hired the 50-year-old Dutchman, who had served the team in the 2002 and this year's World Cups.

Verbeek has previously coached Netherlands Antilles and was an assistant to outgoing South Korea coach Dick Advocaat at the United Arab Emirates and the German pro team Borussia Mönchengladbach.

His first task is to prepare South Korea for next year's Asia Cup. South Korea plays its second qualifier against Taiwan on August 16th.

Advocaat will hold a news conference Tuesday morning before leaving the country in the afternoon. Reports say he will take over the Russian pro team Zenit St. Petersburg.