North Korea's Women Footballers in Seoul to Fight for Title

AFP

North Korea's women footballers.

Despite pounding rain and strong winds, more than 5,000 spectators gathered at a football stadium in Suwon, south of Seoul, on Wednesday evening.

Wrapped in raincoats, fans cheered and jeered as their voices echoed around the stands during a rare fixture between North Korea and South Korea.

However, there was an unusual feature to the atmosphere. Hundreds of South Korean supporters were heard loudly chanting “Naegohyang”, the name of the visiting North Korean club. They had reportedly been brought together by local non-governmental organisations seeking to encourage support for both sides.

The participation of the North Korean team had initially been met with scepticism amid deteriorating relations between the two Koreas in recent years. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a record number of ballistic missile tests while continuing to pursue Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. In 2023, he formally abandoned North Korea’s long-standing objective of reunification with the South and has since designated South Korea a “hostile state”.

The team nevertheless arrived as scheduled, becoming the first group of North Korean athletes to travel south of the border since 2018. Naegohyang Women's Football Club marked the occasion with a victory in the semi-finals of the Asian Women’s Champions League.

The North Korean side defeated Suwon FC Women 2-1, with second-half goals from Choe Kum Ok and Kim Kyong Yong. They are set to face Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan in the final later this evening.

For football supporters and observers familiar with North Korea’s track record in the sport, the result came as little surprise.

North Korea has long maintained a formidable reputation in women’s football. The country is currently ranked 11th in the FIFA women’s rankings, making it the second-highest ranked Asian nation behind Japan.

Founded in Pyongyang in 2012, Naegohyang Women's Football Club won the North Korean league title in 2022. The squad includes several national team players and is currently managed by a former head coach of the North Korean women’s national team.

"North Korea is highly focused on discovering and training young football talent," BBC quoted Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, as saying.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, who like his father is known for his strong interest in sports, pledged to turn North Korea into a "sporting powerhouse" soon after taking power in 2011.

The Pyongyang International Football School, built in 2013 on Rungna Island in the capital, is regarded as a cradle for elite football players, training promising youth from across the country.

"Even in the 1990s, when I was training in North Korea, there was already a well-established system in schools to nurture young athletic talent," BBC quoted Kim Sang-yoon, a former North Korean national boxer who defected in the 2000s, as saying.

"At elite sports schools, talented students were usually selected and trained from elementary or middle school."

The footballing success of the reclusive North Korean regime has often attracted attention, particularly given the severe economic difficulties facing the country as a result of Western sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme, which consumes a significant share of the national budget.

While families closely linked to the ruling establishment are known to enjoy considerable wealth, North Korea remains among the world’s poorest countries. Ordinary citizens frequently struggle to earn a living under the state-controlled economy, while attempts to leave the country in search of a better life carry serious risks. Those caught attempting to flee can face imprisonment or forced labour.

For athletes, sporting achievement can also provide a rare opportunity for social advancement.

In some instances, leading athletes have reportedly been rewarded with luxury vehicles, apartments and even membership of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. Such privileges carry significant social status in North Korea’s highly hierarchical society.

The success of the women’s team has also generated considerable public interest in the sport within the country, according to North Korean defector and former athlete Han Seol-song.

North Korean women’s football has already established an impressive record, including triumphs at the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the 2025 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and the 2026 AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup — achievements that considerably surpass those of the men’s national side.

Some observers believe this goes back to the late 1980s when Fifa agreed to start a World Cup for women. "Maybe someone came to Kim Jong-il and said to him that we could use this," Brigitte Weich, a filmmaker who followed the North Korean team for five years to make a documentary, told BBC Sport in 2024.

"North Korea is not the best in economics, science, human rights and the rest, but in countries like this they can be good at some sports because, from the top down, they can focus on training and nothing else."

It's impossible to know what ordinary North Koreans make of this week's win, or how many of them were even able to watch Wednesday's match given they have limited access to the internet or media.

But South Koreans will be watching - and on Saturday again, there will be a cheering squad, courtesy the Unification Ministry, although their decision to fund it has drawn some criticism.

Source: BBC



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