North Korea's qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa has been named the top news story from the Asia qualifiers.

The Asia Football Confederation (AFC) held a poll on its Web site from June 19th for one week asking for the top news item in Asia’s World Cup qualifiers.

About 570 of 16-hundred respondents voted for North Korea's qualification in the tournament for the first time in 44 years. Iran's failure received the second most votes with 540.

South Korea's qualification for the seventh straight tournament secured 190 votes.