SEOUL, South Korea — For the first time in eight years, North Korean athletes have set foot in South Korea as a women’s soccer team touched down Sunday for an upcoming regional competition, despite ongoing political tensions between the neighboring countries.
The delegation of 39 players and staff members from North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s FC landed at Incheon International Airport, located west of Seoul, after flying in from China. While the team remained silent upon arrival, activists welcomed them with shouts of “Welcome! Welcome!” as onlookers captured the historic moment on their cell phones.
The visiting North Korean squad is scheduled to take on South Korea’s Suwon FC Women this Wednesday in the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League semifinals, which will be held in Suwon, located south of Seoul.
While sports have previously served as diplomatic bridges during periods of improved relations between the two Koreas, experts caution that this soccer match is unlikely to indicate any warming of their historically tense relationship, especially given North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s continued aggressive posture toward South Korea.
Lee Wootae, a senior research fellow at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification, warned against reading too much into the visit in a recent analysis. “We should be cautious about interpreting their visit to South Korea as a sign of an improvement in South-North relations,” he stated. “It would be more accurate to view this as a limited South-North Korean contact within the framework of international sports.”
In recent times, Kim has consistently labeled South Korea as his nation’s main adversary and has worked to abandon concepts of shared Korean identity while promoting an antagonistic “two-state” approach to the Korean Peninsula. Analysts believe this shift reflects Kim’s concerns about South Korean cultural influence and his apparent belief that South Korea no longer serves a useful role in negotiations with the United States.
The last time North Korean athletes competed in South Korea was in December 2018 during a table tennis competition. That visit occurred during a period of active exchange and cooperation programs that followed North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics held in South Korea earlier that year.
This brief era of improved inter-Korean relations ended when American-led diplomatic efforts to address North Korea’s nuclear weapons program fell apart in 2019 over disagreements regarding international sanctions against the North. Since then, North Korea has conducted an aggressive series of weapons testing to build up its nuclear capabilities and has rejected overtures from both South Korea and the United States to resume diplomatic talks.
South Korea’s current liberal administration, headed by President Lee Jae Myung, supports reconciliation with North Korea. The government announced it will financially back civic organizations planning to organize a 3,000-person cheering section to support both North and South Korean teams during Wednesday’s game.
“We will enthusiastically cheer for them by chanting the names of both teams and their players, while faithfully adhering to AFC guidelines,” the civic groups said in a joint statement.
North Korea has established itself as a dominant force in women’s soccer, especially in youth competitions. The country has claimed the Under-17 Women’s World Cup title four times and the Under-20 Women’s World Cup three times. Naegohyang Women’s FC previously defeated Suwon FC Women 3-0 during group stage play in Myanmar last November.
The tournament’s other semifinal will feature Melbourne City FC against Tokyo Verdy Beleza on Wednesday. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at a stadium in Suwon.
