Cheering for two Koreas: How South Koreans welcomed North in football clash
A spectator at the Suwon Sports Complex waves a flag bearing the emblem of North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s Football Club during the team’s semifinal match against South Korea's Suwon FC Women, Wednesday. Courtesy of NK News
Historic semifinal drew thousands of spectators, rekindling engagement hopes while critics warned against politicization
Choi Seon-hee sat in the pouring rain at the Suwon Sports Complex on a cold Wednesday evening, watching something that hadn’t happened in South Korea in nearly eight years: a North Korean sports team competing for a trophy on the South’s soil.
“We are still one people. We are compatriots,” Choi, a woman in her 50s who travelled from Ansan city, told NK News at the stadium about 20 miles south of Seoul.
“I want them to leave with that kind of warm feeling.”
Choi was one of roughly 5,760 spectators who gathered at the stadium as Suwon FC Women hosted the Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s Football Club in the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Champions League semifinals — the first inter-Korean women’s club football match held in the South.
At the half-filled stadium, the visiting team won 2-1 in a match that prompted speculation over whether football could become an alternate channel for inter-Korean contact, despite deepening political tensions.
Naegohyang’s captain Kim Kyong-yong pounced on Suwon’s defensive error in the second half to score the winning header, sending her team to Saturday’s final against Japan’s Tokyo Verdy Beleza for the continental title.
But for many in the stands, the score was beside the point.
The roofless stadium drew a diverse crowd: South Korean families, North Korean defectors, unification-focused civic groups and foreign media.
About 3,000 of those in attendance were organized through the “2026 AFC-AWCL Women’s Football Joint Cheering Squad” of more than 200 civic and inter-Korean exchange groups — including the Council for North-South Cooperation of Civic Organizations, the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, and the Hankyoreh Unification Culture Foundation.
The squad’s stated aim, according to the cheer squad’s organizers, was to cheer for both teams “regardless of the outcome” in a way that embodied “the two great spirits of sport — fair play and peace.”
The South Korean government allocated 300 million won ($215,000) from its inter-Korean exchange and cooperation fund to support the civic groups, covering costs such as ticket purchases and cheering supplies. Officials reportedly advised supporters to avoid using state names during chants, given sensitivities surrounding inter-Korean terminology and the game’s status as a club competition.
Supporters cheer for South Korea's Suwon FC Women during a match versus North Korea's Naegohyang Women's FC at the Suwon Sports Complex, Wednesday. Captured from Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young's X account
Chanting for both sides?
With little shelter from the rain, most of the spectators cheered in ponchos or beneath umbrellas. A joint cheering squad waved Naegohyang flags in one hand and Suwon FC flags in the other as they alternated chants for both teams.
Naegohyang translates to “my hometown.”
For inter-Korean peace activist Jeong Wook-shik, founder of the NGO Peace Network, the significance of the match was in the small interactions between players.
Jeong contrasted Wednesday’s game with tensions seen during the recent AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup, where North Korean players greeted the referees after matches against South Korea and Japan, but walked past the opposing players without acknowledgement.
“This time, they high-fived, the two captains shook hands, and during the match you could see players helping opponents up after fouls,” Jeong said. “There’s still a long road ahead, but compared to the U-17 tournament, this felt much friendlier and I think that deserves recognition.”
Still, Jeong acknowledged that the warm reception for Naegohyang may have come at the expense of the support for the home team.
Prior to the game, organizers said supporters should cheer using team names and player names only, to fit AFC guidelines banning political and religious expressions inside stadiums. Planned slogans from the squad included “Go Suwon,” “Stay strong Naegohyang,” and “Beyond Victory,” with banners welcoming the North Korean club and expressing support for Suwon FC Women.
NK News observed Jeong and others in the squad cheering for both teams throughout the match.
Suwon FC Women manager Park Gil-young appeared to echo some of that frustration when asked about the crowd’s support for the North Korean team during a post-match press conference.
“We are a South Korean football team,” Park said. “To be honest, there were many moments during the match that upset me. It weighed on me.”
“This was a match we really needed to win for the development of women’s football here,” he added. “This is the first time we’ve had this many spectators, the first time this many reporters have come.”
Jeong later expressed sympathy for the home side’s reaction.
“For Suwon FC’s players, coaches and supporters, it may have felt hurtful,” he said. “We tried to cheer equally for both sides, but if certain chants or remarks from the cheering squad upset the players, then I want to express my regret.”
Elsewhere in the stands, Kim Kyung-sung, the chairman of the civic Inter-Korean Sports Exchange Association, stood with an independently organized group of more than 30 affiliates of the association.
They wore scarves reading “See You Again in Wonsan — Ari Sports Cup,” a nod to Kim’s two decades of cross-border sports exchanges.
The Ari Sports Cup — a youth football tournament composed of U-15 teams from both Koreas and other countries organized by Kim — was held alternately in Seoul, Pyongyang and Gangwon Province starting in 2014 before being indefinitely suspended amid the prolonged freeze in inter-Korean relations.
“It was pouring rain, and still about half the seats were filled,” Kim said of Wednesday’s game. “For a women’s soccer match on a night like this, you’d normally expect maybe 100 or 200 people. The turnout shows how much public interest there is when North Korean players come to the South.”
Kim said Suwon had the edge during the first half, with the North Korean side struggling to string passes together as they adjusted to the pitch conditions.
“But in the second half, once they adapted, their attacking game came alive,” he said of the North Korean team. “[Suwon’s] penalty miss was heartbreaking. But at the end, both sides applauded each other, and looking at it all, this was a wonderful match. A real spectacle after so long apart.”
While Kim praised the general atmosphere of the game, he also voiced concern that some of the chants from the joint cheering squad drifted into political themes, such as “we are one,” which he said contradicts Pyongyang’s “two-state” position of the two Koreas.
“North Korea insists these are two separate states. Their coach has even said he won’t respond unless people properly call the country ‘Joson,’” Kim said. “The cheering should reflect that reality and focus on the teams themselves.”
Kim said his deeper concern centered on the government’s role in supporting the cheering effort. Voluntary support for Naegohyang was not problematic in of itself, he said, but government funding of the groups risked the impression that authorities were steering support toward the visiting side.
“The political divide in [South Korean] society is as serious as the inter-Korean divide,” Kim said. “If North Korean players come down here and it ends up deepening that internal rift, it does absolutely nothing to help inter-Korean exchange.”
“Home advantage means the crowd is overwhelmingly behind you, but last night’s Suwon supporters were outnumbered and struggled to make themselves heard,” Kim said.
“If it had happened spontaneously, nobody could call it divisive. But when government funding is involved and it starts to resemble an organized Naegohyang fan club, that’s where I become concerned.”
Members of North Korea's team and their coach Ji Yun-nam, left, who won the 2026 AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup in China, are welcomed after their arrival at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, May 19. AFP-Yonhap
Match in a political minefield
The semifinal unfolded against the backdrop of one of the lowest points in inter-Korean relations in years. North Korea has virtually cut off all contact with the South since abandoning the goal of reunification in Dec. 2023, and has since purportedly codified its “two-state” position in its constitution.
South Korean Culture and Sports Minister Chae Hwi-young attended the match alongside Korean Sport and Olympic Committee President Yoo Seung-min, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and other ruling Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers.
Following the game, Chae described the result as “deeply disappointing” for Suwon FC Women.
“I send my warmest applause to the Suwon FC Women players, who maintained their focus and dominated play despite the heavy downpour,” Chae wrote on social media, while also congratulating the visiting side.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, Seoul’s top official on inter-Korean affairs, did not attend Wednesday’s match. South Korea’s engagement-minded government has been cautious about assigning broader political significance to the event and has been mindful of the political sensitivities surrounding the match.
Speaking at the National Assembly early Wednesday, Chung said the AFC had sent a letter requesting that the match be conducted “as a purely sporting international event, separated from the political situation.”
Chung said his goal was to “leave a good precedent” and portrayed the joint cheering effort as a modest step toward rebuilding trust between the two Koreas.
“The fact that civic groups voluntarily came forward to cheer for both teams will itself become a meaningful precedent after eight years of frozen and completely severed inter-Korean relations,” he said. “We need to build trust, step by step.”
Still, the government’s allocation of 300 million won for the cheering initiative drew sharp criticism from the opposition People Power Party, whose leader accused the administration of “fattening pro-North groups.”
Chung dismissed the criticism as “outdated ideological labeling” and pledged to disclose all spending records. He noted that the conservative administrations of former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye also had used inter-Korean cooperation funds to support nonpolitical exchanges.
The government’s funding of the cheering squad had a clear legal basis under South Korea’s Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, said Choi Eun-a, the secretary-general of the Autonomous Peace Unification Solidarity, one of the civic groups involved Wednesday.
Choi told NK News that criticism of the initiative was politically motivated and pointed to a history of sports exchanges that served as a bridge between adversarial states.
“The Olympics and international sporting events have repeatedly helped broaden mutual understanding and served as stepping stones toward improved relations, both internationally and domestically,” she said.
“To call that political is, in itself, already a political act.”
Players from Naegohyang Women's FC and Suwon FC Women position themselves before a sideline throw-in during the match at Suwon Sports Complex, Wednesday. Courtesy of NK News
On with the show
Civic groups said they planned to return to Suwon Sports Complex on Saturday, when Naegohyang faces off against Tokyo Verdy Beleza in the final.
Jeong said Wednesday’s match showed Pyongyang’s efforts to sever its ties with Seoul had practical limits.
“No matter how much they say they want to cut us off, this shows that it simply can’t be done,” he said, adding that the crowd had shown “a genuine sense of fellow-Korean solidarity and kinship.”
“For a first-of-its-kind event held in South Korea — under conditions where the other side insists on a two-state framework and we maintain the position of a special relationship — the first button was fastened relatively well,” Jeong said.
“From our side, in civil society, the plan is to keep the critical voices in mind and keep stitching, one stitch at a time.”
For other spectators, the feeling was more straightforward.
“I hope they get a good feel of South Korea before they go,” Kang Su-hyeon, a Seoul-based woman in her 30s, told NK News.
Choi, the spectator from Ansan who said she hoped the North Korean side would feel the warmth of shared kinship, said she was unmoved by the backlash from critics.
“I hope this becomes an occasion for the North and South to come together,” Choi said. “And I hope the team from the North felt that, too.”
Read the article at NK News.