North Korea's Naegohyang Women's Football Club will travel to South Korea to compete in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League (AWCL). It marks the first time a North Korean football club, either men's or women's, has visited the South.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said Tuesday that Naegohyang Women's Football Club has confirmed its visit to South Korea for the AWCL semifinal in the 2025-2026 season, where it will face Suwon FC Women.
"The AFC notified the KFA on the 1st of this month that Naegohyang Women's Football Club's participation in the match has been confirmed," a KFA official said. "We plan to proceed with the visit application procedures with the government."
The delegation comprises 39 people in total, including 27 players and 12 staff members, and is scheduled to arrive through Incheon International Airport on the 17th. Naegohyang Women's Football Club will play the semifinal against Suwon FC Women at Suwon Sports Complex at 7 p.m. on the 20th. The winner will face the winner of the match between Melbourne City (Australia) and Tokyo Verdy Beleza (Japan) for the title at the same venue on the 23rd.
The last time a North Korean delegation participated in a sporting event held in South Korea was eight years ago, at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon in December 2018. The most recent official competition where North Korean athletes participated as a "North Korean national team" rather than as a unified team was the World Shooting Championships held in Changwon in September of the same year. For women's football, it has been 12 years since the North Korean women's national team participated in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, and this is the first-ever visit by a club team.
Naegohyang Women's Football Club was founded in 2012 based in Pyongyang and is a rising powerhouse that won the North Korean first division league title in the 2021-2022 season. It is a corporate-style athletic team sponsored by Naegohyang, a consumer goods company.
The government welcomed Naegohyang Women's Football Club's visit. The Presidential Office said, "We welcome Naegohyang Women's Football Club's participation in the AWCL semifinal," adding, "The government will cooperate with the AFC and Suwon FC to ensure the team can play the match smoothly."
However, it remains uncertain whether this match can open the door to inter-Korean exchanges that have been closed for the past eight years. A Ministry of Unification official explained, "The AFC notified the KFA of this visit, and the list of 39 visitors, including 27 players, was also delivered by the AFC to the KFA." In other words, there has been no direct communication between the North and South Korean governments. On the possibility of a high-ranking North Korean official visiting South Korea, the Ministry of Unification said, "The visitor list does not include positions or titles, so we are still verifying."
