sports

DPRK sportspeople have proved successful in various international games during the first half of this year.

The most noteworthy was the successive triumphs of women footballers.

The DPRK women footballers lifted two trophies by winning the 2026 AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup and the 2025-2026 AFC Women’s Champions League.

In the 2026 AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup, the DPRK team scored 36 goals in total and forward Yu Jong Hyang won the best player award and the top scorer award by netting 15 goals including three hat tricks and goalkeeper Kim Son Gyong the best goalkeeper award.

And the cup was the DPRK U-17 women’s football team’s fifth one after the 2007, 2015, 2017 and 2024 events and it became the first five-time winner in the history of the tournament.

In the 2025-2026 AFC Women’s Champions League, the Naegohyang team of the DPRK scored a total of 36 goals and its player Kim Kyong Yong won the best player award.

Successes were also achieved in international games of weightlifting, wrestling, boxing and others.

The DPRK players set more than 10 new world and Asian records and bagged 30 medals including 18 golds at the 2026 Asian Weightlifting Championships. Ri Suk won the MVP award at the championships.

Kim Kwang Myong, Won Myong Gyong and other male and female wrestlers bagged more than 20 medals including 11 golds at the 2026 Asian Wrestling Championships and other international events, and women judoists won two golds and one silver at the 2026 Asian Judo Championships.

DPRK boxers won 10 medals including two golds at two international boxing tournaments. In particular, Kim Un Ok and her coach Kim Chol San won the best woman boxer award and the best woman’s boxing coach award, respectively, at the 2026 Konstantin Korotkov International Boxing Tournament.

Good results were also made in track and field and trampoline events.

At the New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026, Pak Sol Gyong set a new record of the tournament and won a gold medal in the women’s 5 000m race and Kang Ryon Hui came first in the women’s 3 000m hurdles. Kim Phyong Gyong won a gold medal in the A1 girl individual at the 7th Senior and Junior Trampoline Asian Championships and the 2nd Asian Trampoline Age Group Competition.

In addition, the DPRK players finished in the top three at some other international games, including those who finished runners-up at the women’s doubles and mixed doubles of the teqball competition of the 6th Asian beach games beyond the expectations of many experts and fans across the world, though it was their international debut.