Inside North Korea’s obsession with dominating girls soccer

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SEOUL—After the last whistle blew at the youth women’s World Cup final in November, the Netherlands coach sounded dejected. His side had just lost 3-0.

“I don’t think we could have beaten them," the coach conceded. The Netherlands squad had just run into North Korea. Youth women’s soccer, alongside weightlifting and table tennis, is something of an athletic arbitrage for cash-strapped North Korea.

The Kim regime figures other nations won’t subject preteen girls to arduous training. That’s left opportunities for outsize achievement for a government perennially hunting for propaganda victories and international prestige. Rival players and coaches say the young North Korean women possess unmatched stamina, mental toughness and physical aggression.

“They don’t let you breathe," said Irune Dorado, a Spanish midfielder, after losing to the North Koreans in 2024. Yoon Duk-yeo, a former South Korean women’s national team manager, recalled the tenacity he saw in the North Korean athletes’ eyes. They would completely throw their bodies on the line, seemingly unafraid of injury, he said.

“You instinctively pull back or yield when you’re about to collide with someone, right? But I didn’t see any of that," said Yoon. “Their obsession with winning was on another level." Kim Jong Un, the 42-year-old dictator, has looked to sports as a platform to demonstrate his resilience against international sanctions and drive nationalism—especially among younger citizens who’ve bristled in secret at the regime’s brutal way of life. North Korea’s girls have won the 17-and-under FIFA competition a record four times, and currently hold the title for women 20 years old and under.