The Korean peninsula holds its breath as a rare inter-Korean soccer game is set to occur on May 20. The match will be held between the North’s Naegohyang Women’s Football Club and the South’s Suwon FC Women in the southern city of Suwon for an Asian Champions League semifinal. For the world, this is the first time that Pyongyang has agreed to send athletes to its neighbor since the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. The visit also surprises many political pundits and Koreans at home or overseas alike, as the Pyongyang government had previously declared the South an enemy state and abandoned Korean reunification.
BRIEF HISTORY OF INTER-KOREAN SPORTS COLLABORATION
For most of the Cold War, the Pyongyang and Seoul governments have mostly been engaged in acts of extreme hostility against each other. There have been occurrences of North Korean soldiers attempting to infiltrate South Korea, hijack Korean Air passenger planes, and even assassinate the South Korean President. In terms of sports, this rivalry reached its peak with North Korea’s hosting of the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang, in response to the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics. Widely seen as a political response, the event heeded little attention in the media compared to the Seoul Olympics, and bankrupted Pyongyang.
The past three decades mark a transformation from this, with North-South Korean relationships having fluctuated between periods of tension and cooperation. South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung’s and Moon Jae-in’s “Sunshine Policy” opened up investments into North Korean industries and tourism to the famed Mount Kumgang in North Korea. Noticeably, the North and South Korean teams marched under the Korean Unification flag in the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics and competed as one united Korean ice hockey team.
However, the recent development of North Korean missiles and new sanctions have soured inter-Korean relationships. Tensions reached a point when, in 2023, Kim Jong-un declared the South a hostile sovereign state and promptly abandoned the goal of Korean reunification, which was one of the few issues on which the North and South shared common ground. Very few would have expected that North Korea would be willing to send its players not only to play against but in the South as well after this.
REACTIONS FROM KOREANS AT ST. MARY’S
Sentiments amongst the South Korean community at St. Mary’s about this have been relatively supportive. “Us Southerners will welcome the Northerners very much,” said Junyoung (’29), a freshman from the Republic of Korea, “I hope [the Northerners] will do well.” This demonstrates that despite tensions, a sizable number of Koreans still believe that this inter-Korean match would bring more progress in relations instead of being a non-factor. “While true reconciliation lies with governments on both sides,” added Junyoung, “[the game] is definitely a step in the right direction.
CONCLUSION
Nearly eight decades have passed since the Korean peninsula was split in two. During the course of this time, there have been various ups and downs in their relations. Many Koreans can only hope that the visit to Suwon by the North’s Naegohyang Women’s Football Club could be a positive sign.
