The North Korean football team has taken off its veil," wrote the Seoul media after their northern neighbours drew 2-2 with Greece in a World Cup warm-up in Switzerland on Tuesday. For the next few weeks the face that is revealed to the world, at least as far as football fans are concerned, will for a change not be that of a short, bespectacled dictator. The Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, will be upstaged by "the People's Rooney", Jong Tae-se, a steely-eyed footballer full of passion, ambition, power and not a little humour: a popular goalscorer who, if he has his way, will soon be playing in the Premier League.

Jong is already a star in east Asia. He took the 2008 East Asian Championship by storm in China; is one of the top strikers in Japan's J-League; has appeared in television adverts alongside Manchester United's Park Ji-sung in South Korea; and, most unusually in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where supporters do little more than clap at football matches, has had his name chanted by 80,000 fans at Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang. Now he is ready to take on the world.

Jong's two sumptuous strikes against Greece – the first a 25-yard shot that crashed in off the bar, the second a fierce strike from a tight angle after a burst of acceleration past a defender – may even have caused a few frowns in the training camps of World Cup Group G opponents Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal.

Over green tea in the ground floor restaurant in the Kanagawa Science Park, a hotel in Kawasaki just outside Tokyo where Jong plays his club football, it is hard to stop the 26-year-old talking. In his deep, rich voice, he announces: "I want to score a goal a game at the World Cup, one goal a game, that is my target." And then? "I want to play in England."

It would complete an unusual journey. Jong was born, raised and still lives in Japan. There were reports in Seoul that his parents were South Korean but the player denies that this is the case and he appeared on the cover of South Korea's FourFourTwo magazine in 2008 above the headline: "I am not South Korean". Once he entered the pro-northern education system that operates in Japan's large Korean community, there was only one team he was going to play for.

"I was born as a North Korean and went to a North Korean school just like many people in Japan do and many of my friends did. My mother is from North Korea. My father was brought up in Japan and went to a Japanese school but despite that he thought of himself as North Korean and I do, too."

Midfielder Ahn Yong-hak is another Japan-based North Korea international. Such players, who earn about £4,000 a week, go to Pyongyang on football-related visits only. Their team-mates earn a minimal state allowance and play for clubs such as the army outfit 25 April and Amroggang, one that has produced seven "heroes of the republic" in athletics and football. There is no professional football north of the 38th parallel, where matches draw sparse crowds. There are no divides in the DPRK dressing room, however. "I am not the first North Korean player to be based in Japan and the other players have always been really nice to me. They just wanted to know information about Japan and the J-League … It was really impressive the way the players welcomed me and the way the North Korean government and people treated me."

Politics is the one issue that Jong will not talk about, on or off the record. Another no-no, though he enthused about it when the recorder was switched off, was the trial he undertook at a Premier League club earlier this year. He will not name the club, but says he realised he was not quite good enough. He believes he can improve, however, and at the World Cup millions of fans around the world will get to see for themselves as he has the chance to compare himself to the best around.

He has been nicknamed Inminui Rooney – the People's Rooney – because of his aggressive and hard-working style and stocky build, but he thinks that it is not the best moniker. "I don't dislike being compared to Rooney, he is one of the greatest strikers in the world so it is a big honour, but my style of play is different to his. My benchmark is Didier Drogba.

"I want to play in England. When I was at high school, Italy's Serie A was the most popular league but with the help of cable television, I started watching English football and I really enjoyed the stadiums, the atmosphere and the passion. Years ago, I used to train wearing a Blackburn Rovers shirt." Was this a common sight? "I don't think so," he says, laughing. "In Japan, there were not many people wearing Blackburn shirts. I just went to the shop and bought one because I liked it."

He may get close to the real thing after the summer. The last North Koreans to play in England famously defeated Italy on their way to a thrilling quarter-final with Portugal in the 1966 World Cup, in which the Asians took a 3-0 lead before losing 5-3. "We know the history of course," Jong says. "It will be tough to repeat it but we will give everything. Our technique is not better than the likes of South Korea and Japan but in terms of mentality and physicality, we are better than any other in Asia. Nobody really expects us to do much at the World Cup and there will be little criticism even if we lose all the games. If we win, that will be beyond our wildest dreams."

Despite the presence of Drogba in the Ivory Coast team, Jong is more excited about the opening game on 15 June. "I am looking forward to facing all three teams, especially Brazil with their history and football tradition. It will be a great experience to play such a team."

It will be a far cry from the 2007 preliminary qualifier against Mongolia – the first step on a long road to South Africa. Later came four games against South Korea. When the two teams lined up before an emotional match in Shanghai (the match was moved from Pyongyang as North Korea refused to fly the southern flag or play their anthem) tears rolled down the striker's cheek. On the back of a solid defence and a quick counterattack, North Korea finished second in a tough final group containing Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea.

"We never really thought about qualification before the final round but game by game we improved a lot and we were able to stop our opponents from playing to their strengths," Jong says. "I was very happy as qualification progressed because my team-mates were getting better and better."

Claiming the runners-up spot was a tense affair. By the final day, South Korea had already won the group and were taking on Iran in Seoul. An away win would have left North Korea needing a victory in Saudi Arabia. That was on the cards as Iran were leading until Park equalised with nine minutes remaining. It meant that, thousands of miles to the west and a few hours later, North Korea needed only a draw in Riyadh.

Jong watched the Seoul match in his hotel room in the Saudi capital as he tried to relax before the game. "Park Ji-sung gave us the best-ever assist. He gave us a great chance. It was so exciting. I was with Ahn Yong-hak and we were hugging each other and jumping up and down when Park Ji-sung scored. We knew that we only needed a draw and I had faith that we could do the job in Saudi Arabia. We play defensively and I knew that few strikers can easily penetrate our defence." They held out for a goalless draw.

"At the final whistle, I was so happy and so excited. I cried for a long time. When we went back to our hotel, we intended to go out for a drink and have a good time but all of us were really tired. We just had dinner and went to bed.

"Many of the team went back to Pyongyang and had a great reception. I couldn't go but as you can imagine as North Korea hasn't qualified for the World Cup since 1966 then everyone there was so happy when we qualified, so excited."

It was a triumph for the coach, Kim Jong-hun. Little is known about him, other than that he is gruff, likes to wear trenchcoats, and does not take kindly to journalists who refer to his team as North Korea rather than DPRK. His players speak highly of him but the team's biggest problem, like the coach's, is a lack of international experience. In the past, friendlies have been as few and far between as visitors to Pyongyang. Nigeria were due to go there in April but backed out when it became apparent that they were expected to bear the costs themselves. The team have not been idle, however, and at least from a football perspective, North Korea are internationalising at breakneck speed with trips to Africa, South America and Europe in recent months.

It has not all gone smoothly. A game with Chile was cancelled because of an earthquake in the South American country in February, a game in China was scrapped after food poisoning, and a training camp in Zimbabwe was called off after locals protested about Korea's planned visit because, back in the early 1980s, North Korea helped to train a Zimbabwean army brigade that slaughtered at least 20,000 Ndebele people in the part of the country where the team were due to train.

There is still support from elsewhere, however. Few fans, if any, from the nation itself are expected to go to South Africa but a number from the Korean community in Japan will travel and the Beijing office of the North Korean Sports Committee has given 1,000 tickets to Chinese fans. There is also a Beijing-based international fan group, DPR Korea Football Supporters Association, organised by two Englishmen, who will send 300 fans to cheer the team from all over the world. With South Korea sending just a few hundred Red Devils, due to the cost, distance and fears about security – widely reported in east Asia – the North could actually be better supported than their neighbours.

But Jong hopes that the 2002 semi-finalists perform well in South Africa and he even has a regular column that appears in the Seoul media. It still continues despite the increase in tension between the two countries. On 24 May, South Korea publicly accused Pyongyang of having sunk the Cheonan, a navy corvette, in the Yellow Sea in March. Forty-six young sailors lost their lives. The chairman of South Korea's bid to host the 2022 World Cup, Han Sung-joo, a former foreign minister, remains keen to have North Korea involved in the tournament if possible. Jong certainly hopes that it is.

"If the World Cup comes to Pyongyang it would be beyond our wildest dreams. The people are already excited about the World Cup in South Africa, having a World Cup on home soil would be something else. It was impressive watching South Korea reach the last four back in 2002 and if North Korea has home advantage then we could perform well also.

"It may not be easy politically to be united but sport can unite people. If there are games in South Korea and North Korea, then that can contribute to peace on the Korean peninsula."

• This article was amended on 1 June 2010.