Japan and South Korea have picked glamorous film actresses as goodwill ambassadors to celebrate their co-hosting of the football World Cup Finals in June.

　　Japan's sexiest actress Norika Fujiwara will now use her charm as her country's goodwill ambassador.

　　South Korea is represented by Kim Yun Jin, 28, who portrayed a shapely North Korean agent in the 1999 Hollywood-style espionage movie Swiri (Shiri), the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

　　Ironically, in the movie, which has drawn huge audiences in South Korea and Japan and wowed crowds elsewhere, she leads a rogue commando unit to blow up a stadium in Seoul,swheresthe two Koreas are playing a friendly football game.

　　Her Japanese counterpart is Norika Fujiwara, 30, billed as Japan's sexiest actress, who gained an international following after starring in the 2000 United States-Hongkong movie China Strike Force.

　　Kim and Fujiwara will serve as goodwill ambassadors for the whole of this year to help the two governments 'promote the atmosphere of the apan-Korea friendship in the new century' by seizing on the joint hosting of the world's premier football event. They are due to appear in events, starting with ceremonies in Seoul on Monday and in Tokyo on Jan 28.