North Korea has seized on its recent victory in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Champions League as a propaganda tool. The regime is using the win to showcase the success of Kim Jong Un’s sports policies and to trumpet the supposed superiority of their system.
On Thursday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) ran a feature titled, My Hometown Team: Asia’s Premier Women’s Soccer Squad. The article, which included interviews with the team’s manager and head coach, put a spotlight on the significance of their tournament triumph.
KCNA hailed the competition as a battleground for the world’s top female soccer talents, emphasizing that the North Korean squad clinched the championship in their debut appearance. In their interviews, the manager and head coach broke down the tournament structure, their winning strategy, and heaped praise on the players’ performances.
Notably, they attributed the victory not to tactical or technical prowess, but to an ardent love for the motherland and an indomitable spirit that overwhelmed opponents. This rhetoric aligns with North Korea’s typical propaganda playbook, which tends to link athletic achievements to loyalty to the state rather than individual talent.
The interviewees also highlighted Kim’s personal involvement, mentioning his attendance at past exhibition matches and photo ops with players and coaches. They claimed that the Supreme Leader’s love and benevolence were driving forces behind the team’s success. This narrative aims to frame the sports victory as a testament to Kim’s leadership.
North Korean state media has been increasingly leveraging international sports successes for propaganda purposes and to bolster national unity. Women’s soccer, being one of North Korea’s most competitive sports on the global stage, is being heavily promoted as a source of national pride following this victory.
Interestingly, KCNA’s coverage omitted any mention of the tournament taking place in South Korea, the semifinals and finals being held in Suwon, or the team playing in front of South Korean fans. Instead, the focus remained squarely on the victory itself, the players’ patriotism, and Kim’s sports-centric policies, clearly aiming to spin the achievement into regime propaganda.