Goals from Park Chu-young and Ki Sung-yueng in the first half were enough to give the visitors the points they needed to book their place at the 2010 World Cup in a game which was soured by the sending offs of Kim Jung-woo and Helal Saeed in the second-half.

The win means South Korea have claimed one of the automatic places from Group B, while their northern neighbours and Saudi Arabia are left to battle for the second spot.

And Huh was not afraid to admit which of the two sides he was hoping to see clinch that final qualification berth.

"I personally hope that DPR Korea can qualify with us to the finals because it will be the first time in World Cup history to have this," he said.

"I'm really happy that we made it to the World Cup finals. We played well and we are all satisfied with a performance that saw us win and ensured a place in South Africa in 2010.

"I'm really honoured to lead the team to the World Cup mainly because I'm Korean and this is really good for me," he added.

"We have now two games against DPR Korea and Saudi Arabia and hopefully we can continue our good form

"The players were excellent throughout the qualifiers and they did a great job."

UAE coach Dominique Bathenay meanwhile was left to lament his side's poor defending against the Koreans, as his team endured another defeat in a woeful campaign that has seen them take just one point from seven games.

"The game was hard for us against one of the best teams in Asia," he said.

"It was hard after conceding two goals in the first-half and things could have been easier if it had finished 1-0.

"The two goals came from defensive mistakes and it is not only the goalkeeper who we should blame because the Koreans managed to score after they penetrated our defence with long balls.

"I'm disappointed for this defeat but my main disappointment is that we were missing several players in this game which made it harder for us and it will be the same in the next game against Iran."