Later this month, a North Korean women's football team will participate in a regional competition in South Korea, marking a rare sporting encounter between the war-torn adversaries. The Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women's FC is scheduled to play Suwon FC Women on May 20 in the Asian Football Confederation Women's Champions League semifinals in Suwon, south of Seoul, according to a statement released on Monday by the South's Unification Ministry, which is in charge of inter-Korean matters. According to a statement from the ministry, the AFC informed South Korea's football association that the team's participation in Suwon had been confirmed. The football team's anticipated trip hasn't been covered by North Korea's official media, though.

Following a period of diplomatic engagement marked by the participation of North Korean athletes alongside a high-level delegation at the Winter Olympics in the South earlier that year, North Korea last sent players to South Korea for a table tennis competition in December 2018. The last time North Korean women's football players participated in the South was when they sent their national side to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.

Since 2019, Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, has launched a domestic effort to eradicate the impact of South Korean culture and language among his people while suspending significant diplomatic relations with Washington and Seoul.