'First North Korean Women's Club to Visit South Korea': Hometown Women's Football Team Arrives in Beijing, China... Scheduled to Enter South Korea on the 17th

*This content was translated by AI.

The North Korea Hometown Women's Football Team, which is preparing for its visit to South Korea, has arrived in Beijing, China, its transit training location.

According to the Inter-Korean Sports Exchange Association on the 12th, the Hometown Women's Football Team arrived in Beijing on that day. The team, which is visiting South Korea to compete in the 2025~2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League (AWCL) semifinals, is reported to have conducted live training sessions at a training ground near Beijing from the 13th to the 16th.

The Hometown Football Team is scheduled to enter South Korea through Incheon International Airport on the 17th. A total of 39 people, including 27 players and 12 staff members, are expected to visit South Korea.

In this AWCL semifinal, a North-South showdown between South Korea's Suwon FC and the Hometown Football Team has been confirmed. The match will be held on the 20th at Suwon Sports Complex. In the other semifinal, Melbourne City of Australia and Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan will face off. The two teams that win here will play the final on the 23rd at the same venue to decide the champion.

The Hometown Women's Football Team was founded in 2012 with Pyongyang as its home base and is regarded as one of North Korea's strongest teams. It is also a corporate sports team sponsored by the 'Hometown' enterprise. The team has won the North Korea Women's First Division League multiple times. Currently, former North Korea Yeo Ja-chuk-gu (CEO) team coach Ri Yu-il is leading the team.

In this tournament, the Hometown Women's Football Team recorded two wins and one loss (second place in Group C) in the group stage and advanced to the tournament. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) 3-0. At that time, the Hometown Women's Football Team played matches in Laos, a neutral location, without hosting home games.

Meanwhile, the North Korean sports team is visiting South Korea for the first time in eight years. In October 2018, the 4.25 Sports Team and the Yeomyeong Sports Team's youth teams (U15) participated in the Arisports Cup International Football Tournament, held in Chuncheon and Inje, Gangwon Province. If limited to women's teams, it has been 12 years since the North Korea Yeo Ja-chuk-gu (CEO) team participated in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. This is the first time a North Korean women's football club team has visited South Korea.

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*This content was translated by AI.