Soccer-North Korean club says focused only on football during rare South Korea visit

We are ⁠focused solely on tomorrow's match and the matches ahead," Naegohyang Women's FC Coach Ri Yu ⁠Il told a press conference. "The issue of the cheering squad is not something I, ​as coach, or our players are thinking about.

North Korea's Naegohyang ​FC will focus only on ​football during their rare visit ‌to South ​Korea, their coach said on Tuesday when asked about a 3,000-strong cheering squad organised by activist ‌groups for their game against Suwon FC Women. Naegohyang face the South Korean club in the Asian Women's Champions League semi-finals in Suwon on Wednesday, marking the ‌first visit by North Korean athletes to the South in eight years.

More ‌than 200 South Korean civic groups have formed a squad to cheer on both teams, saying they support fair play and peace, according to Yonhap news agency. "We came here strictly ⁠to play ​the match... We are ⁠focused solely on tomorrow's match and the matches ahead," Naegohyang Women's FC Coach Ri Yu ⁠Il told a press conference.

"The issue of the cheering squad is not something I, ​as coach, or our players are thinking about. I think we ⁠will focus only on the game." Naegohyang captain Kim Kyong Yong said the team would strive to ⁠make ​their families proud.

"To repay the trust and expectations of ... our parents and siblings, we will give everything," she told the press conference. The delegation ⁠of 27 players and 12 staff arrived on Sunday, with its stay approved ⁠under South Korea's ⁠inter-Korean exchange law.

The visit comes despite strained ties between the two Koreas, with Pyongyang recently calling Seoul its "most hostile ‌state".