North Korea’s Women’s Football Team Arrives in Beijing: What to Expect Ahead of the 2025-2026 AFC Champions League?

Translation result. [Herald Economy reporter Jang Yoon-woo] The North Korean Naegohyang women’s football team arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on the morning of the 12th aboard an Air Koryo flight.

Photos released by the Inter-Korean Sports Exchange Association show the squad pulling travel bags while wearing light-blue tops and navy bottoms. One image appears to show Hyun Cheol-yoon, the Naegohyang team manager and former head of the Pyongyang International Football School, leading the delegation.

The team will train and run tactical drills at a facility near Beijing from the 13th through the 16th, then enter South Korea via Incheon International Airport on the 17th. The AFC informed the Korea Football Association that the North Korean delegation totals 39 people, including 12 staff members. Reporters from North Korea reportedly did not accompany the team.

Naegohyang will compete in the 2025–2026 AFC Women’s Champions League semifinal stage, with all matches at Suwon Sports Complex. They face Suwon FC Women in the semifinal at 7 p.m. on the 20th; a win would send them to the final at 2 p.m. on the 23rd. Their opponent in the final will be the winner of Melbourne City (Australia) vs. Tokyo Verdy (Japan).

Separately, the Unification Ministry said it will provide 300 million KRW (approximately $225,000) from the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Fund to civilian groups supporting the semifinal. A ministry official said the decision considered the event’s potential to promote mutual understanding between North and South. The ministry expects to support roughly 2,500 people, including separated-family and exchange organizations, and calculated the funding assuming Naegohyang could reach the final.

The Inter-Korean Sports Exchange Association plans to form a roughly 100-person “Peace Cheer Squad.” A spokesman said the group aims to carry on the Ari Sports Cup spirit—when North and South youth built friendships through soccer—and to create a cheering section both sides can enjoy together.

This visit is the first North Korean delegation trip to South Korea in eight years, since the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon in December 2018, and the first visit by the North Korean women’s football team in 12 years, since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.