North Korean women’s club to play rare football match in the South

A North Korean women’s football club will become the first sports team from the country to play in South Korea since 2018 when they visit this month, Seoul’s unification ministry has confirmed. The neighbours remain technically at war after their 1950–53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and sporting and cultural exchanges between them are very rare. Naegohyang Women’s FC will play the South’s Suwon FC Women on May 20 in the semifinals of the Asian Champions League. The winner will face Melbourne City or Tokyo Verdy in the final, also to be played in Suwon, on May 23 . The visiting delegation will include 27 players and 12 club staff, the ministry said on Monday. South Korea’s football association told AFP news agency that the team would arrive on May 17 . They will fly into Incheon airport on an Air China flight from Beijing, a unification ministry official said. The winner of the match at Suwon Sports Complex, south of the capital Seoul, will play the final of Asia’s top women’s club competition against either Australia’s Melbourne City or Japan’s Tokyo Verdy Beleza on May 23 . “The losing team in the semifinal will return home on Thursday, May 21 , with no third-place playoff scheduled,” the ministry statement added. The match will be the first time a North Korean sports team has played in the South since shooting, youth football and table tennis delegations travelled there in 2018. The last time Pyongyang sent a women’s football team to th