{"id":12385,"date":"2026-07-21T08:23:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12385"},"modified":"2026-07-21T08:23:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:23:25","slug":"south-korea-spends-158000-to-support-north-korean-soccer-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12385","title":{"rendered":"South Korea spends $158,000 to support North Korean soccer team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/6521784587915\/2026\/upi_com\/e2296c254e9e4f597b4a3d6a7ddbc00b\/v1.5\/South-Korea-spends-158000-to-support-North-Korean-soccer-team.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Naegohyang Women&#8217;s FC players celebrate after winning the AFC Women&#8217;s Champions League 2026 final match between Tokyo Verdy Beleza and Naegohyang Women&#8217;s FC in Suwon, South Korea, 23 May 2026. Photo by JEON HEON-KYUN \/ EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 20 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> South Korea spent 235.29 million won ($158,000) from an inter-Korean cooperation fund to support joint cheering for a North Korean women&#8217;s soccer club during an Asian tournament in May, the Unification Ministry said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The government had approved 319.45 million won ($215,000) for activities supporting Naegohyang Women&#8217;s FC during the Asian Football Confederation Women&#8217;s Champions League.\n<\/p>\n<p>About 85 million won ($57,100) that was not used will be returned after the accounts are settled, the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>The government spent 148.74 million won ($100,000) on 5,048 match tickets, cheering supplies, snacks, an event booth and service fees for operating the supporters&#8217; group.<\/p>\n<p>An additional 84.55 million won ($56,800) was spent on event operations, while 2 million won ($1,340) was used to pay for an audit of the subsidy settlement report.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said the funding was provided under a provision of South Korea&#8217;s Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund Act that supports exchanges and cooperation contributing to mutual trust and the restoration of a national community.<\/p>\n<p>Naegohyang, a North Korean women&#8217;s club based in Pyongyang, competed against Japan&#8217;s Tokyo Verdy Beleza in the tournament final.\n<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said the North Korean club&#8217;s participation was decided on short notice, making it difficult to determine in advance the number of participating civic groups and the details of the cheering events.<\/p>\n<p>The government therefore provided an estimated advance payment through the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Support Association.<\/p>\n<p>Any unspent funds are being returned after a review of the final expenses, the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260720010006876\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260720010006876<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Naegohyang Women&#8217;s FC players celebrate after winning the AFC Women&#8217;s Champions League 2026 final match between Tokyo Verdy Beleza and Naegohyang Women&#8217;s FC in Suwon, South Korea, 23 May 2026. Photo by JEON HEON-KYUN \/ EPA July 20 (Asia Today) &#8212; South Korea spent 235.29 million won ($158,000) from an inter-Korean cooperation fund to support&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/6521784587915\/2026\/1\/e2296c254e9e4f597b4a3d6a7ddbc00b\/v1.5\/South-Korea-spends-158000-to-support-North-Korean-soccer-team.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}