South Korea top World Cup group after victory in Lebanon

South Korea remained on course for their ninth consecutive appearance at the World Cup finals with a 3-0 victory in Lebanon on Tuesday.

The win helped the Asian powerhouses maintain their perfect record in the qualifying campaign and took them to the top of Group G on nine points, ahead of Kuwait on goal difference.

Jang Hyun-soo converted a penalty in the 26th minute to put Korea, who defeated Myanmar and Laos in earlier matches, 1-0 up.

It took another four minutes for them to double their lead through Koo Ja-cheol who was the top scorer at the 2011 Asian Cup.

Kwon Chang-hoon, who made his debut in the East Asian Cup last month, netted his third goal of the campaign on the hour to put paid to any hopes of the hosts making a comeback against Uli Stielike's side.

"When the players execute their game plan and take care of business then coaches are essentially on vacation on the bench," coach Stielike was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.

"This match was like that. Though we had some difficulties in the last 10 minutes or so, we dominated from start to finish."

Korea next travel to Kuwait for a top-of-the-table clash on Oct. 8.