A North Korean women’s soccer team arrived on Sunday in South Korea, the first athletes from the North to set foot in the South in seven and a half years, despite political tensions so inflamed that the countries’ governments are not on speaking terms.
The team, Naegohyang Women’s F.C., will face a South Korean club, Suwon F.C. Women, on Wednesday evening, in a semifinal of the Asian Football Confederation’s Women’s Champions League. When athletes from the two Koreas, who are still technically at war, meet, the exchange is never only about the game.
Here is what to know about the trip.
Why Is Naegohyang Traveling to the South?
Naegohyang, which means “my hometown” in Korean, is based in Pyongyang and sponsored by a well-known North Korean consumer goods company of the same name.
It is the first North Korean team to compete in the A.F.C. Women’s Champions League, a top-tier club competition in Asia, and will play a semifinal match in Suwon, a city south of Seoul.
If the team wins on Wednesday, it will stay in South Korea for the championship game on Saturday, which will also take place at the Suwon Sports Complex. The other semifinal match pits Australia’s Melbourne City F.C. against Japan’s Tokyo Verdy Beleza.
Naegohyang’s roster includes players from the North Korean national teams that won the FIFA Under-20 and Under-17 Women’s World Cups in recent years.
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