A North Korean soccer club has arrived in South Korea to face off against a local team in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League.
Thirty-five members of the Naegohyang Women’s FC landed at Incheon International Airport on Sunday.
Clad in business suits, the team walked past civic group members who were holding up welcome signs. The team remained mum and left the airport by bus.
The North Korean delegation will take on South Korea’s Suwon FC Women on Wednesday night in Suwon, which is near Seoul.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry says this is the first time in eight years that North Korean athletes have traveled to South Korea for a competition. It says the last time North Korean athletes competed in an event there was in 2018, when some table tennis players took part in an international meet.
Some people hope this latest visit will help thaw relations between the two Koreas.