“Two years ago we were runners-up in this competition, but this year we were not great and we were not able to achieve what the Vietnamese people anticipated from us,” said Park.

“But the players did their best and the responsibility for this result is mine as head coach and we’ll try to do better next time."

“It’s hard to see a positive side when we have a bad result like this. We only scored one goal throughout the competition and we still have to adjust a lot of things.

“If I was to look for a positive, it would be that we were able to find some new good players who will be able to play in the national team too.”

The game started well for the Vietnamese with Nguyen Tien Linh putting them in front in the 16th minute, but a mistake by goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung gifted DPR Korea the equaliser 11 minutes later.

Vietnam missed string of chances in the opening 15 minutes of the second half before Ri Chung-gyu scored from the spot for DPR Korea in the 90th minute to end Vietnamese dreams of a repeat of two years ago and an appearance at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

DPR Korea, meanwhile, secured their first win of the tournament despite already being eliminated from the competition following defeats in their first two matches and coach Ri Yu-il stressed it was important his players showed their fighting spirit until the end.

“We lost two matches and after we lost the second match against the UAE the chance to go to the next stage was not there,” he said. “But we can’t give up.

“The team is here and we have to work together and fight to the end. The players were working together for educational purposes too because these players will represent the country and we have to educate them that we can’t give up and that’s why we fought to the last.”