North Korea coach Jo Tong-Sop said his team were far from done at the Asian Cup despite their 1-0 defeat to Uzbekistan on Saturday.

The caretaker boss said torrential rain had not helped his team as they narrowly missed out to the 2011 semi-finalists in Sydney.

North Korea, who saw Pak Kwang-Ryong's header clawed away by 'keeper Ignatiy Nesterov on the final whistle, have Group B games to come against Saudi Arabia and China.

"We have two more matches in the group stage. We still have a chance and we don't want to lose it," said Jo.

Jo is deputising for Yun Jong-Su, who is serving a one-year ban for his fist-shaking rout after North Korea's tight loss to South Korea at the Asian Games final in October.

He said rain which came down in sheets by half-time had made life difficult for his team, who were undone by a swift counter-attack on 62 minutes.

"The rain did disturb our play. We couldn't play so well because of the rain. The rain did give some trouble to our team's perfect play," said Jo.