Like many friendships, it began with a goal. Football may be the ultimate leveller in international relations, but few games prove its unifying power more than the historic match at Ayresome Park 42 years ago.

When Pak Do Ik scored in the 41st minute against Italy, it not only set up the greatest of World Cup giant killings, but also forged a bond between the citizens of Middlesbrough and their comrades in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Korean War had ended only 13 years earlier but love of the underdog brought football fans in the Tees Valley to their feet as they watched the team of unknowns defeat the Italians. The crowd, with hardly a Korean among them, cheered and applauded all the way to the full-time whistle. Middlesbrough had made sporting history. The Dear Leader, Kim Il Sung, was delighted.

“Before we arrived in Britain, we were not sure how the people of England would treat us,” the centrehalf Rim Jung Son recalled when the seven surviving members of the team returned to Middlesbrough in 2002, revisiting the former ground of Ayresome Park, which is now a council estate. “We thought we would be shunned. But the Mayor of Middlesbrough and all the people went out of their way to make us feel at home. I still cannot understand why they did it, but I am glad they did.”

The warm reception was never forgotten. The late mayor, John Boothby, continues to be revered by the players and now, for the first time, a British tourist board — Tees Valley — finds itself in the favour of Kim Jong Il.

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