From the four gold medals they won at the Olympic Games in 2012, to Kim Jong-il’s incredible (wink wink) eleven holes-in-one in his only ever round of golf at Pyongyang Golf Course, North Korea has enjoyed some sporting highlights over the years. The secretive Asian nation hasn’t quite delivered the same success in football – certainly not in recent years, anyway – but that could all be about to change thanks to the exploits of their women’s team.
They won the Under-20s World Cup in September 2024. Not some made-up event to appease leader Kim Jong Un; the literal Under-20s World Cup, beating the likes of Brazil, Argentina and the Netherlands along the way. Almost seemingly behind closed doors, North Korea has built a talented young squad capable of taking on – and beating – the best teams on the planet. So could North Korea one day win the World Cup proper?
World Domination
🇰🇵 North Korea’s young women have won their third U20 World Cup, drawing level with Germany and the U.S.
Why are North Korea so good at youth football? pic.twitter.com/E5lIfu7Qsn
— DW Sports (@dw_sports) September 26, 2024
North Korea’s Under-20s women didn’t just win the World Cup: they absolutely toasted their opposition. In the group stage, Argentina were trounced 6-2, before Costa Rica were despatched by a wide 9-0 margin. The North Koreans rounded out Group F with a 2-0 win over the Netherlands.
There were further victories over Austria (5-2) and Brazil (1-0) in the knockout phase, before they overcame the number one ranked team in women’s football – the United States – by a 1-0 margin in the semi-finals. Waiting for them in the final in Bogota was Japan, but in front of 32,000 spectators the North Koreans once again showed their class, scoring an early goal and then successfully defending their lead to lift the trophy.
Administrative Error
Now, on paper at least, winning the World Cup might seem like an extraordinary achievement for North Korea. And, it is, of course. But it’s worth noting that they have now won the women’s Under-20s World Cup on three separate occasions; a record that sees them tied with the United States and Germany as the most prolific nations in the competition.
North Korea’s wins have come in 2006, 2016 and 2024: suggesting that they have developed a golden generation of players that might have actually gone on to do damage in the senior World Cup too. And maybe they would… given half a chance.
Absent for a Number of Years
North Korea were invited to compete in the women’s World Cup between 1999 and 2011, which they did – a run to the quarter-finals in 2007 being their best effort to date. But since then, they have been strangely absent from the tournament altogether.
They were banned from the 2015 World Cup for the most remarkable reason: something that would sound far fetched on an episode of Would I Lie to You. Back at the tournament in 2011, five North Korean players were found to have steroids in their bloodstream – FIFA, taking doping offences very seriously, prohibited the country from participating at the 2015 edition.
Struck by Lightning?
North Korea’s explanation was, well, out of left-field. After the players in question were allegedly struck by lightning, they were treated using an ancient Chinese medicine: a secretion from the glands of the musk deer. FIFA’s own medical team simply did not believe North Korea’s explanation, and so their ban was upheld.
Because they didn’t participate in the 2015 World Cup, North Korea also suffered the loss of ranking points generated during the qualification process and the tournament itself; it made their task of qualifying for the 2019 edition all the more challenging, and so they failed to make it to the event in France.
Global Health Crisis
As for the 2023 World Cup, they didn’t even try to bother. So stringent were North Korea’s rules during the pandemic that people weren’t allowed in and out of the country; given that the World Cup qualification campaign began during the lockdown, the country simply had no way of playing their qualifying games.
The next women’s World Cup will take place in 2026; at which point, this class of 2024 will still be very much in their prime. But will the administration of North Korean football afford them the opportunity to strut their stuff on the global stage?
The Next Step
The men’s 1966 World Cup is best remembered, in England at least, for the Three Lions’ triumph and Geoff Hurst’s ‘did it or didn’t it cross the line?’ goal. What you might not know is that tournament also represented North Korea’s first foray into the World Cup and they did rather well.
They beat Italy and drew with Chile to qualify from Group 4, before playing out a breathless quarter-final with Portugal: the North Koreans actually led 3-0 at one stage, before succumbing to a 5-3 defeat against Eusebio and co. Since then, in time honoured fashion for North Korean football, it’s been something of a washout.
FIFA Ranking Lost
They refused to enter the tournament in 1970 and 1978, citing a potential qualification fixture clash with Israel (whose politics they were opposed to) in the former and their South Korean neighbours in the latter. North Korean did return to World Cup qualifying between 1982 and 1994, but failed to make the tournament proper, losing in the final play-off to China in 1982.
After failing to qualify for the World Cup in 1994, the North Korean national football team was effectively put on ice for four years. This period coincided with the tragic famine in the country, which saw as many as a million lives lost, as well as the traditional three-year mourning period for President Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994.
FIFA refused to protect North Korea’s world ranking, which saw them tumble down the standings and extend their qualification campaign for major tournaments. In protest, the North Korean football authority removed its team from qualifying matches.
Moving Back Up the Ranks
They would finally return to World Cup qualification in 2006, and by 2010 they were back at the finals proper for only the second time in their history. They lost all three of their games, but held Brazil to a goalless opening half in their group clash.
Since then, there’s been qualification failures and the now traditional tournament withdrawals, but a run to the quarter-finals of the 2022 Asian Games – where they went down by a solitary goal to Japan – acts as a reminder of their talent.
Remember, this is a team made up of players that are, essentially, barred from leaving the country – therefore, they have to play their club football in North Korea, which prevents them from gaining a wider education of the beautiful game overseas.
It’s not yet impossible that North Korea will qualify for the 2026 World Cup. It would be, as is the case with the success of the women’s team, a true underdog tale if they can overcome their self-inflicted obstacles and achieve exactly that.
