(News Focus) N. Korea's football visit raises hopes, doubts for resuming inter-Korean talks

▲ Kim Hye-yong of Naegohyang Women's FC (R) celebrates after scoring a goal against Ho Chi Minh City Women's FC during the clubs' quarterfinal match at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League at Lao National Stadium KM16 in Vientiane, Laos, on March 28, 2026, in this file photo captured from the AFC's website. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This file image from the Korean Central Television shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as it reported on his reelection as president of the State Affairs Commission at the first session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly held on March 22, 2026. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ In this file photo from Feb. 9, 2018, delegations from South Korea and North Korea march together into PyeongChang Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games in Pyeongchang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul. (Yonhap)

(News Focus) N Korea-football

(News Focus) N. Korea's football visit raises hopes, doubts for resuming inter-Korean talks

By Woo Jae-yeon

SEOUL, May 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's decision to send its women's football club to South Korea for a regional football event this month is drawing attention to whether it could serve as a chance to ease strained inter-Korean ties, analysts said Monday.

If realized, the visit would carry added significance as the first trip by North Koreans to South Korea under North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's "two hostile states" narrative.

Earlier in the day, the Korea Football Association (KFA) and South Korea's unification ministry said Naegohyang Women's FC, based in Pyongyang, will travel to Suwon, some 30 kilometers south of Seoul, to face Suwon FC Women in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League on May 20.

Pyongyang notified the AFC of the decision Friday, making the planned visit the first appearance by a North Korean athletic team on South Korean soil in more than seven years.

The last was a group of five North Korean players who competed in the 2018 International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon, just west of Seoul, in December 2018.

The upcoming visit comes amid North Korea's animosity against South Korea following North Korean leader Kim's declaration of inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" in late 2023.

Last month, Kim called South Korea "the most hostile nation," reaffirming a push to bolster his "two hostile states" stance.

Some experts see the upcoming visit by the North Korean team as Pyongyang's calculated effort to maintain its standing as a participating member of the international sports community, not as a gesture of reconciliation.

"This could be an opportunity for the Kim Jong-un regime to boost internal support by showcasing North Korean players as more capable than those of the enemy state," Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, said. "It will almost certainly be used as a propaganda tool to reinforce the two-state policy at home."

"The internal message would be that the two Koreas are no longer a single nation but separate states standing as equals on the international stage," Lim added, stressing that the event will likely set "an important precedent" for a "new normal" of cool but peaceful coexistence between the two.

Seoul's unification ministry struck a cautious note, declining to read too much into Pyongyang's participation, while insisting sports should be kept separate from politics.

"We see this as a purely international sporting event, a competition between clubs," a unification ministry official told reporters Monday. "It is not something the government should intervene in."

The official said the government would extend its full support to ensure the event proceeds without a hitch.

Some experts see it as a potential opening for dialogue between the two Koreas, given the role sports have historically played in bridging the two sides together.

The two Koreas made their first direct contact since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War in 1963, one year after Pyongyang insisted on fielding a unified Korea team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.

In another example, North Korea sent a delegation to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, opening a rare diplomatic channel that helped lay the groundwork for the historic summits between then President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un later that year.

Still, not all analysts are convinced that the upcoming event will produce any meaningful outcome.

"While sports exchanges at times helped ease tensions, the government should take a more pragmatic stance given Pyongyang's hardening two-state policy," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said.

"For now, the priority should be ensuring the event runs smoothly and using the opportunity to chip away at Pyongyang's hostility," he said.

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