World soccer governing body FIFA has ordered North Korea to play a politically sensitive home World Cup qualifier against Japan behind closed doors in Bangkok next month.

In a statement posted on its website on Monday, FIFA said North Korea's soccer association had not appealed in time against an April 29 decision to punish the country for crowd trouble during March qualifiers against Bahrain and Iran in Pyongyang.

"The Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup (Sub-Committee for Urgent Matters) has today announced that the Korea DPR-Japan preliminary competition match will be played on June 8 at a neutral venue in Bangkok, Thailand," the statement said.

North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

There was no immediate reaction from Pyongyang, but last week, official North Korean media strongly criticised FIFA for its proposed punishment.

The Bangkok Post reported at the weekend the Group B match would be played at the Rajamangala National Stadium there and Japan have said they would be happy to play in Thailand.

Some Japanese officials had feared their country's colonial past on the Korean peninsula could have made their team a target in Pyongyang, too.

South Korea's soccer federation had been pushing as late as Monday for the match against Japan to go ahead in Pyongyang and had also sought to help the North appeal.

It was not immediately clear why no appeal was lodged in time.

FIFA ordered the Japan tie to be played in a neutral country following crowd trouble during North Korea's 2-0 defeat by Iran on March 30.