Women Footballers to Play Asian Cup Qualifier in Pyongyang

The South Korean women's football team will visit North Korea for the first time in April to play qualifiers for the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup.

South Korea was grouped with Hong Kong, India, North Korea and Uzbekistan in the qualifiers draw held in Amman, Jordan on Saturday. North Korea will host the group matches, and the two Koreas are scheduled to face each other in Pyongyang on April 7.

South Korean women footballers have never played in North Korea.

The men’s team last played there in 1990. The men were in the same group as North Korea in the final round of Asian qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but the North moved the venue to Shanghai to avoid having to hang the South Korean flag and play its national anthem.

In women's football, South Korea is ranked 18th in the world, behind North Korea at No. 10. It also lags the North in the two teams’ overall record, with one win, two draws and 14 losses.