The Colo Colo midfielder, captain of a young and inexperienced South American team, stabbed the ball home at the near post after 54 minutes, though he needed two attempts to control Pedro Morales` floated cross.

It was a deserved win for Chile, who could have won by a greater margin having restricted the Asian Cup semi-finalists to a handful of half-chances.

Park Won-jae went closest for the home team with four minutes remaining when he blasted over the bar from inside the area.

"It was a tough game," said Chile coach Marco Bielsa.

"We made many changes during the game but we kept our shape and played well at times. I am very satisfied."

It was a far from ideal way for new Korea coach Huh Jung-moo to begin his third spell in charge of the national team, who have now not found the back of the net in over eight hours of international football.

"We worked so hard but were not able to get the result we wanted," Huh said.

"We will play better next week. Our focus has always been on Turkmenistan, that is the game we must win."

South Korea begin the next stage of their bid to reach South Africa on February 6 against Turkmenistan at the same venue.

North Korea and Jordan complete the Group C line-up.