North Korean soccer has been competitive in international play despite having fewer chances to face other national teams due to limited diplomatic ties.
North Korea’s women will play for national pride and an Olympic berth when they meet Nadeshiko Japan on Wednesday at Tokyo’s 68,000-seat National Stadium in the second match of their two-legged qualifier.
The winning team will get to play at the Paris Olympics after Saturday’s first game ended in a scoreless draw in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the North Koreans demonstrated their speed and physical strength.
Soccer is one of the most popular sports in North Korea, with the nation’s leader, Kim Jong Un, watching domestic league play.
The men’s and women’s clubs, supported by groups such as the military and companies, have apparently raised the level of the national teams.
Both the North Korean men’s and women’s teams have played at multiple World Cups. The women’s team has made two trips to the Olympics.
Both the men’s and women’s leagues have three divisions, according to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency and South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
In the women’s season, which ended last October, 4.25, the army club named for April 25, won the title, and Naegohyang finished second.
Ri Yu Il, head coach of the national women’s team, is the man who turned Naegohyang into a strong competitor. At the current squad, eight players are from Naegohyang and seven from 4.25.
His father is goalkeeper Ri Chang Myung of the North Korean squad that reached the quarterfinals of the 1966 World Cup in England, according to the Choson Sinbo newspaper published by the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.