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North Korea's women's football team win's third U-17 World Cup
The team has been dominating the sport even as their authoritarian regime uses this to push their own narratives
North Korea is basking in its dominance of women’s youth football after a third World Cup win in just over a year, sporting success that is being used to justify the secretive state’s political system.
A 3-0 win against the Netherlands in Morocco on Saturday saw the North Koreans lift a second successive Women’s U-17 World Cup, and fourth in all, following their victory 12 months ago.
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The back-to-back U-17 triumphs came after North Korea, which is largely closed off to the outside world, also won the Women’s World Cup at under-20 level in September 2024.
The North Koreans swept all before them in Morocco, scoring a tournament record 25 goals and conceding just three as they won all seven of their matches.
The triumph saw North Korea’s propaganda machine swing into action on Monday with the team’s exploits seized upon by state media as bringing “joy to our beloved motherland”.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper blazed a state news agency KCNA piece across its front page trumpeting: “Our players ran across the pitch waving the dignified flag of our republic with pride.”
Nuclear-armed but impoverished, North Korea is more often in the news for sanctions-busting ballistic missile launches, but sees investment in sporting success as a way to vindicate its political system.
Inspiration to the people
The victory served as “great encouragement and inspiration to all the people ... to host the 9th Party Congress as a victorious and glorious event,” said state mouthpiece KCNA.
It was referring to the once-every-five-years gathering of the country’s highest decision-making body presided over by leader Kim Jong Un.
A year ago, officials staged a street parade upon the players’ return from the U-17 World Cup.
Hong Min, analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP he expected a repeat of those celebrations in Pyongyang in the next few days.
“There is a strong perception that the country is culturally backward and isolated,” he said.
“So they will want to use this to project an image that their social and cultural foundations are strong and vibrant.”
Hong said children with athletic potential were selected early for training.
“The North finds elite athletes at a very young age and pours in deep investment at a state level with an aim to stage them in global competition,” Hong said.
“Players in return feel they must repay such investment with their performances.”
He said such an approach was “commonly seen in socialist countries” where the state takes a central role developing elite athletes.
The strength in women’s football is a contrast to North Korea’s men, who are ranked 120th by FIFA and have not qualified for a World Cup since 2010.
The senior North Korea women’s team are ranked 10th and will be one of the favourites for next year’s Women’s Asian Cup in Australia.
Of the 12 teams that have qualified, only Japan (eighth) have a higher world ranking.
Stricter approach
Lee Jung-woo, a senior lecturer in sports and leisure policy at the University of Edinburgh, said North Korea takes a stricter approach to youth sport than countries in the West.
“In youth football, I think European sport organisations highlight more on having fun,” he said in an interview with German outlet DW.
But in North Korea, young players “join very highly disciplined, highly systematic and highly professionalised training regimes, so in early ages they can excel”.
The Netherlands U-17 coach Olivier Amelink conceded that the North Koreans had been in a class of their own in skill, fitness and intensity.
“I don’t think we could have beaten them. I think the gap ... is simply too big to compete with them at the moment,” he told Fifa.com after the final.
“They outplayed us throughout the entire match.”
North Korea’s Yu Jong Hyang was the player of the tournament, netting a joint-record eight goals in the finals to take home both the Golden Boot award for top scorer and Golden Ball for player of the tournament.
“Our players played the final match wonderfully,” said midfielder Ri Ui Gyong, who scored the third goal in the final.
“All 25 goals were incredible, and we scored them because our players believed in each other and gave it their all.”
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