The Ministry of Unification announced Tuesday that North Korea's Naegohyang Women's Football Club will visit South Korea to take part in the first-ever inter-Korean women's football club match.
Naegohyang Women's Football Club will participate in the semifinal of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League (AWCL) to be held in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on the 20th. In the semifinals, Australia's Melbourne City FC will face Japan's Tokyo Verdy Beleza, while Suwon FC Women will take on Naegohyang Women's Football Club. The final is also scheduled to be held in Suwon on the 23rd.
The AWCL is a tournament launched last year by the AFC on the back of growing interest in women's football, featuring the winners of women's football leagues from across Asia. A total of 12 teams are participating in the 2025-26 AWCL, with group stage matches held in Myanmar, Vietnam and China since last year, followed by the semifinals and final in Suwon. The winner will receive $1 million (about 1.51 billion won) in prize money.
While inter-Korean matches have been held in the past in national team or age-group competitions, this marks the first time a head-to-head match between women's football clubs has taken place in an official international tournament. The last visit by a North Korean sports delegation was in December 2018 for the mixed doubles event at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) 2018 World Tour Grand Finals.
