North's Naegohyang Women's FC arrives in Beijing to train before match against South
Published: 13 May. 2026, 12:14
North Korean athletes of Naegohyang Women's FC arrive at an airport in Beijing on May 12 before their visit to South Korea. [INTER-KOREA SPORTS EXCHANGE ASSOCIATION]
North Korean female footballers of Naegohyang Women’s FC arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a training camp ahead of their upcoming match against a South Korean football team next week.
The North Korean athletes landed at Beijing Capital International Airport via Air Koryo flight JS151 on Tuesday morning, according to the Inter-Korea Sports Exchange Association.
In photos released by the association, the players are wearing matching sky blue and navy tracksuits as they wheel their suitcases through the airport. Hyon Chul-yun, the club’s general manager and a former head of the Pyongyang International Football School, is also seen accompanying the delegation.
Of the 39-person North Korean delegation, Hyon was one of the 12 coaching staff, according to a notice from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to the Korea Football Association.
The North Korean team is scheduled to train at a facility on the outskirts of Beijing from Wednesday through Saturday. They are expected to arrive at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport on Sunday.
Naegohyang is traveling to South Korea for the semifinal match of the 2025-26 AFC Women’s Champions League, which will take place at Suwon Stadium in Gyeonggi on May 20.
North Korean athletes and the coaching staff of Naegohyang Women's FC arrive at an airport in Beijing on May 12 before their visit to South Korea. [INTER-KOREA SPORTS EXCHANGE ASSOCIATION]
The winner of the match will head to the final on May 23, when it will meet either Melbourne City FC of Australia or Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan.
The visit marks the first time in eight years that a North Korean sports delegation has traveled to South Korea for an athletic competition. Their latest visit dates back to the International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon in December 2018.
It will also be the first visit by a North Korean women’s football team since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
The Inter-Korea Sports Exchange Association plans to organize a cheering squad of about 100 people for the inter-Korean match.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PARK LIN [
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