North Korean Women’s Soccer Team to Visit South Korea: What This Means for Inter-Korean Relations?

Translation result ▲ Lee Jae-myung, President, Memorial Day ▲ ⓒ Yonhap News

[SPOTV News = Reporter Park Dae-sung] South Korean officials have confirmed that North Korea’s Naegohyang football club will visit the South. The BBC highlighted the visit as the first notable inter-Korean sports exchange in eight years.

The BBC reported on May 4 (Korean time) that North Korea’s Naegohyang team will make an unusual trip to South Korea at the end of this month. The team is scheduled to cross the border on the 20th to face Suwon in the Asian Women’s Champions League (AWCL) semifinal.

The outlet said Pyongyang submitted a list of 27 players and 12 staff members for the trip. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification has officially confirmed Naegohyang’s visit. This is the first time North Korean athletes have traveled to the South since 2018, when North Korea sent athletes to form a unified ice hockey team for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Before the BBC report, the Korea Football Association (KFA) issued an official statement. The KFA said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) notified it on May 1 that it had received Naegohyang women’s team’s roster, schedule and tournament documents. The team plans to arrive at Incheon International Airport on May 17.

Narrowing the scope to North Korean club teams, this is the first visit since October 2018, when the April 25 Sports Team and the Yeomyeong Sports Club U-15 squads participated in the Ari Sports Cup in Chuncheon and Incheon, Gangwon Province. Limiting the comparison to women’s teams, it is the first case since the North Korean women’s national team took part in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

The BBC described Naegohyang’s trip as a government-level decision by Pyongyang. The visit comes as President Lee Jae-myung seeks to ease tensions and restore inter-Korean engagement. Relations have deteriorated after North Korea labeled South Korea its most hostile state and publicly announced it would no longer pursue reunification. Because the two Koreas never signed a peace treaty after the 1953 armistice ending major hostilities in the Korean War, they remain technically at war.

▲ ⓒ Yonhap News

Naegohyang was founded in 2012 and is based in Pyongyang. Backed by the consumer goods company “Naegohyang,” it operates as a corporate-sponsored sports club. The team has won North Korea’s top women’s league multiple times and is coached by former national team manager Ri Yu-il.

Most players on the roster have experience winning age-group World Cups. Naegohyang advanced to the Champions League for the first time after defeating Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City 3-0 in the quarterfinals. The winner of the semifinal will face either Melbourne City or Tokyo Verdy. Both the semifinal and the final will be held in Suwon.