On May 20, North Korea's Naegohyang women's football team will face South Korea's Suwon FC Women in the semifinals of the AFC Women's Champions League. It will be the first time in six years that a North Korean sports team has played in South Korea, dating back to 2018.
Although the two countries remain technically at war — the 1950–1953 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty — multiple South Korean civic organizations are mobilizing volunteers to cheer for the visitors. One group predicts more than 1,000 people may gather at Suwon Stadium to support Naegohyang.
These groups advocate inter-Korean reconciliation and regularly organize activities to further that goal. The Korea Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC) said it has recruited about 300 people. The Korean Sharing Movement reported it filled its quota of 100 within an hour of posting a notice Wednesday, while the Hankyoreh Foundation for Unification and Culture said about 60 people had signed up.
However, South Korean law and political sensitivities complicate the cheering. Under the National Security Act, displaying or possessing North Korean flags or playing its national anthem in public is illegal. The use of the unification flag — a green silhouette of the Korean Peninsula on a white background — may also be restricted under Asian Football Confederation (AFC) rules barring political displays at stadiums.
A South Korean Unification Ministry official said that during the match, club flags will be flown instead of national flags, and no national anthems will be played. The semifinal winner will advance to the final of Asia's top club competition on May 23 in Suwon, facing the victor of the other semifinal between Australia's Melbourne City and Japan's Tokyo Verdy Beleza.
