North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s FC will travel to South Korea to face Suwon FC Women in an Asian Champions League semifinal on May 20, in a rare cross-border sports visit coordinated by the Korea Football Association and pending government approval. [1, 2]
The match at Suwon Sports Complex will be the first time a North Korean sports team has played in South Korea since 2018. [2] Naegohyang’s delegation will include 27 players and 12 club staff, and the team is due to arrive at Incheon airport on May 17 on an Air China flight from Beijing. [2]
Naegohyang was founded in 2012 in Pyongyang, and many of its players are at national team level. [2] The club’s trip comes as North Korea and South Korea remain technically at war under an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, and sporting and cultural exchanges between the two sides are rare. [2]
If Naegohyang wins the semifinal, it will stay in South Korea for the final on May 23. [1, 2] The losing team is scheduled to return to North Korea on May 21, and no third-place playoff is planned. [2]
