{"id":533,"date":"2026-05-17T07:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T07:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=533"},"modified":"2026-05-17T07:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T07:34:37","slug":"north-korean-womens-soccer-team-arrives-in-south-korea-for-regional-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=533","title":{"rendered":"North Korean women’s soccer team arrives in South Korea for regional tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Members of North Korea\u2019s soccer club Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC team arrives at Incheon International Airpot in Incheon, South Korea, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ahn Young-joon)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 A North Korean women\u2019s soccer team<\/a> arrived in South Korea on Sunday to compete in a regional tournament, the first visit by North Korean athletes in eight years amid political tensions between the two nations.<\/p>

Read more Bangladesh reduces Pakistan to 96-4 at lunch on Day 2 of the second test<\/a><\/p>\n

A total of 39 players and staff with North Korea\u2019s Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC arrived at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, aboard a plane from China. They didn\u2019t make any comments, though some activists shouted \u201cWelcome! Welcome!\u201d and citizens used their mobile phones to film their arrival.<\/p>\n

The North Korean team will face South Korea\u2019s Suwon FC Women on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women\u2019s Champions League in Suwon, a city south of Seoul.<\/p>\n

The two Koreas have occasionally used sports events<\/a> to create feel-good moments when relations were amicable. But the latest soccer event won\u2019t likely signal any thaw in their long-strained ties, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un<\/a> maintaining his confrontational stance<\/a> against South Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be cautious about interpreting their visit to South Korea as a sign of an improvement in South-North relations,\u201d Lee Wootae, a senior research fellow at Seoul\u2019s Korea Institute for National Unification, said in a recent report. \u201cIt would be more accurate to view this as a limited South-North Korean contact within the framework of international sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, Kim has repeatedly called South Korea his country\u2019s principal enemy and taken steps to eliminate the idea of shared statehood and establish a hostile \u201ctwo-state\u201d system<\/a> on the Korean Peninsula. Observers say such a move likely stems from Kim\u2019s wariness of South Korea\u2019s cultural influence and his purported perception that South Korea is no longer useful in dealings with the U.S.<\/p>\n

North Korea last sent its athletes to South Korea in December 2018 for a table tennis event. At the time, North and South Korea were engaged in a flurry of exchange and cooperation programs<\/a> following the North\u2019s participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics<\/a> in South Korea earlier in 2018.<\/p>

Read more Shohei Ohtani getting on track with season-high 5 RBIs in Dodgers\u2019 rout of Angels<\/a><\/p>\n

The brief period of inter-Korean detente came to an end after a U.S.-led diplomacy<\/a> on ending North Korea\u2019s nuclear program collapsed in 2019 due to disputes over international sanctions on the North. North Korea has since performed a provocative run of weapons tests to expand its nuclear arsenal and rebuffed South Korean and U.S. offers to restore diplomacy.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s current liberal government, led by President Lee Jae Myung,<\/a> espouses rapprochement with North Korea. The government said it will provide financial support to civic groups planning to organize a 3,000-member squad to cheer for both North and South Korean teams at Wednesday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will enthusiastically cheer for them by chanting the names of both teams and their players, while faithfully adhering to AFC guidelines,\u201d the civic groups said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

North Korea is a powerhouse in women\u2019s soccer, particularly at the youth level. It has won the Under-17 Women\u2019s World Cup four times and the Under-20 Women\u2019s World Cup three times. Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC defeated Suwon FC Women 3-0 in the group stage in Myanmar last November.<\/p>\n

Melbourne City FC and Tokyo Verdy Beleza are to face off in the other semifinal on Wednesday. The final is set for Saturday at a stadium in Suwon.<\/p>

Read more Sabres rally to beat the Canadiens 8-3 to force Game 7<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A North Korean women\u2019s soccer team has arrived in South Korea to compete in a regional tournament<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nNorth Korean women's soccer team arrives in South Korea for regional tournament - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=533\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"North Korean women's soccer team arrives in South Korea for regional tournament - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A North Korean women\u2019s soccer team has arrived in South Korea to compete in a regional tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=533\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-17T07:34:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3a2339be291c26468d67b9ee1ed3fe7c-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"North Korean women’s soccer team arrives in South Korea for regional tournament\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-17T07:34:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533\"},\"wordCount\":640,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/3a2339be291c26468d67b9ee1ed3fe7c-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=533\",\"name\":\"North Korean women's soccer team arrives in South Korea for regional tournament - 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