North Korean club to play rare football match in South

A North Korean women’s soccer team is scheduled to play at a regional tournament in South Korea later this month, in a rare sports exchange between the war-divided rivals.

The South’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement Monday that the Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s FC is expected to face Suwon FC Women on May 20 in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League in Suwon, south of Seoul.

The Korea Football Association, South Korea’s soccer body, said the AFC notified it that the North Korean team submitted a list of players and staff set to come to Suwon. The KFA said North Korea would be fined by the AFC if the team failed to compete in the semifinals.

North Korea’s state media has not reported on the soccer club’s expected trip.

North Korea last sent athletes to South Korea in December 2018 for a table tennis event, continuing a period of diplomatic engagement highlighted by the participation of North Korean athletes alongside a delegation at the Winter Olympics in the South earlier that year. North Korea also sent its national women’s soccer team to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, which was the last time its female soccer players competed in the South.

North Korea’s women’s teams have had recent success in international youth competitions and are the defending Under-17 and Under-20 World Cup champions.

In the continental club tournament, Naegohyang Women’s FC defeated Suwon FC Women 3-0 in the group stage in Myanmar last November, before beating a Vietnamese club in the quarterfinals in March. The winners of the May 20 semifinals will meet in the final three days later in Suwon, with Melbourne City FC and Tokyo Verdy Beleza facing off in the other semifinal.

While athletes from North and South Korea have previously competed on combined teams and marched together in Olympic ceremonies during periods of warmer relations, sports exchanges have since faded as relations deteriorated, with no inter-Korean activities for years.

North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the US since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s broader nuclear diplomacy with US President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 over disagreements on US-led sanctions on the North.

Tensions have been rising lately as Kim ramps up his nuclear and missile program targeting Asian U.S. allies and the US mainland and hardens his stance toward South Korea. Kim has labeled South Korea as his most hostile adversary and has shown sensitivity to South Korean soft power, pushing aggressively to block the influence of South Korean culture and language among his population.