North Korean women’s soccer team to play in South Korea tournament

A North Korean women’s soccer team will travel to South Korea later this month to compete in a regional tournament, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Monday. In this 2024 file photo, North Korean supporters cheer at a FIFA World Cup qualification match in Tokyo. File Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA

SEOUL, May 4 (UPI) -- A North Korean women's soccer team will travel to South Korea later this month to compete in a regional tournament, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Monday, marking the first inter-Korean sports exchange since 2018.

Naegohyang Women's FC is set to face Suwon FC Women in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women's Champions League on May 20 at Suwon Stadium, as part of the tournament's finals stage being held in South Korea.

Pyongyang notified Seoul on May 1 that a 39-member delegation -- including 27 players and 12 staff -- will make the trip, according to a briefing shared by the Unification Ministry with reporters. The team is scheduled to arrive at Incheon International Airport via Beijing on May 17.

The exchange will be the first since a period of detente in 2018, when North Korea participated in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, fielding a unified women's ice hockey team with the South. Pyongyang later sent athletes to additional sporting events, including a youth football tournament in Gangwon Province.

Relations have soured in the years since, with North Korea officially designating the South as a "most hostile state."

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought to ease inter-Korean tensions since taking office in June, calling for the resumption of dialogue and making conciliatory gestures such as dismantling border propaganda loudspeakers.

The North has rebuffed such overtures, however, while continuing to expand its military posture.

Naegohyang, founded in 2012 and backed by a domestic manufacturing company, has emerged as a rising force in North Korean women's football, according to the ministry. The squad won the country's top league in the 2021-22 season and includes several players with experience on national youth teams that won recent FIFA U-17 and U-20 Women's World Cups.