The 29-year-old won his 100th cap for his country this week in the Asian Cup semi-final, a game his team lost on penalties. Kwang-Rae did not feature him in his squad for the third-place play-off match against Uzbekistan, which South Korea won 3-2, because hi manager did not want him to get injured.
Former Tottenham defender Lee Young-Pyo had already announced his decision to retire from international duty and bows out with Park after a solid competition from the Asian team.
Kwang-Rae praised both players for their comminttment to the team:
Kwang-Rae praised both players for their comminttment to the team: "I would like to say something about Park Ji-Sung and Lee Young-Pyo," said Cho. "From today they are going to be retired from their national football careers. I want to say they did a remarkable job for Korean football and I want to say I have loved working with them.
"It would be better if I could keep both of them in the national team but they have done an excellent job in international football and I'm sure the Korean fans would like to congratulate them for all their hard work," he added.
Park had refused to confirm his retirment directly after the game and said he would wait till Monday to reveal his decision: "I'm going to say when I back to Korea. I will have a press conference and will talk then," he said, adding that he felt the Korean team showed great promise. "At the moment the young players are very talented and skilful, their technique is great," he said.
"They just need some experience and I think this tournament has been very important for them in terms of that," he added. "I think some of the players can go to Europe and gain experience there, then they will be even stronger than now."
