The North Korean women’s soccer team, Naegohyang Women’s Football Club (FC), has confirmed its visit to South Korea. While North Korean national teams have played in South Korea before, this marks the first time a soccer club will travel for an official match.
This visit also represents the first time in eight years that North Korean athletes have come to South Korea for an international competition since events like the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Korea Open table tennis tournament. Fans will finally get to see North Korean athletes compete on South Korean soil again.
On May 4, the Korea Football Association announced that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had informed them on May 1 that the Naegohyang Women FC secured a spot in the semifinals of the AFC Women’s Champions League (AWCL).
The AWCL, launched last year by the AFC to promote women’s soccer, is a tournament where champions from various Asian women’s soccer leagues compete for the continental title.
Representing South Korea, Suwon FC Women barely squeaked into the knockout stage with a 1-1-1 record, finishing third in their group. However, they stunned the soccer world in the quarterfinals by demolishing last year’s champions, Wuhan Jiangda WFC from China, 4-0 to reach the semifinals.
The stage is now set for a showdown against the Naegohyang Women FC, who defeated Ho Chi Minh City from Vietnam 3-0, with a spot in the final on the line. The inter-Korean clash was confirmed shortly after.
The AFC decided to hold the semifinals and finals in the host country of one of the semifinalists and accepted hosting proposals. The Korea Football Association submitted a bid in January, believing it would boost interest in women’s soccer and enhance the WK League’s competitiveness. After review, the AFC confirmed Suwon as the host city on March 30.
With Suwon set as the venue, speculation arose about whether the Naegohyang Women FC would participate. Contrary to expectations that they would skip the event, they ultimately decided to make the trip south.
The last time North Korean soccer teams visited South Korea was 12 years ago during the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. In that tournament, the women’s team clinched gold while the men’s team secured silver.
The men’s soccer final, featuring a rare match between the two Koreas, drew significant attention, with South Korea edging out a 1-0 victory.
North-South sports exchanges peaked in 2018. During the PyeongChang Winter Olympics that February, athletes from both nations marched together under a unified flag at the opening ceremony, and a joint women’s ice hockey team competed. The unified flag flew again that summer.
North Korea participated in the 2018 Korea Open International Table Tennis Championships in Daejeon that July. They also agreed to form unified teams for mixed doubles and men’s and women’s doubles, coordinating with the Korea Table Tennis Association. This marked the first table tennis unified team in 27 years, since the 1991 World Championships in Chiba.
In a historic moment, the mixed doubles team of Jang Woo-jin from the South and Cha Hyo-sim from the North defeated a Chinese pair to claim the championship. This feat was the second time a unified Korean team won gold since the 1991 World Championships, following the women’s doubles victory by Hyun Jung-hwa from the South and Ri Bun-hui from the North.
North Korea also sent a 12-athlete delegation to the World Shooting Championships in Changwon in September 2018, continuing the trend of sporting exchanges. However, participation dried up after that. The Naegohyang Women FC’s trip to Suwon for the AWCL marks the first visit by North Korean athletes to South Korea in eight years across all sports.
While this meeting is significant beyond the realm of sports, the match itself promises to be compelling. Suwon FC Women will be laser-focused on lifting the championship trophy on home turf, while the North Korean Naegohyang Women FC aims to showcase their world-class talent on this high-stakes stage of women’s soccer.
