Pyongyang International Football School: North Korea's secret weapon factory on the pitch

"Rather than a Gyeongpyeong football match between Seoul and Pyongyang, why don't we start our exchanges with basketball?"

That was the suggestion Kim Jong-un made to then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in at their third inter-Korean summit, held at the Peace House in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018.

Kim said North Korean basketball had been strong when Ri Myong-hun — the world's tallest professional player at the time — was active, but had weakened after his retirement. "I don't think we can compete with the South anymore," Kim said. "Don't you have many players over two meters tall in the South?"

It appears that reviving the Gyeongpyeong football tournament had come up during the sports exchange agenda at the summit. Kim's remarks hint at a desire to compete in a sport where the North holds at least a relative edge — or one he personally favors. Kim spent part of his childhood in Switzerland in the 1990s and is a devoted NBA fan, a connection that also explains why NBA star Dennis Rodman visited North Korea multiple times to meet him.

South Korea's national football team has cemented its reputation as Asia's standard-bearer in the sport — reaching the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup, winning bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, and qualifying for the World Cup for the 11th consecutive time in 2026. For North Korea, which is clearly outmatched on the pitch, the prospect of an inter-Korean football showdown carries obvious risks.

Yet Kim had not entirely given up on North Korean football.

Pyongyang International Football School opened on May 31, 2013, on Kim's orders, with the stated goal of building North Korea into a "sports powerhouse" — roughly a year and a half after Kim Jong-il died on Dec. 17, 2011, and Kim Jong-un assumed power. The timing signals that Kim viewed the revival of North Korean football as a priority from the very start of his rule. North Korean authorities have publicized that Kim personally chose the school's name and gave detailed instructions on its establishment.

The school was built on a 12,200-square-meter site on Rungna Island in Pyongyang. Equipped with modern facilities and welfare amenities, it boasts seven football pitches and an indoor training hall — the best football training environment in North Korea.

It has been compared to France's Clairefontaine, widely regarded as Europe's premier football education facility, earning it the nickname "North Korea's Clairefontaine." There is one notable difference: Clairefontaine requires students to meet minimum academic standards and commute to nearby schools for general education, whereas Pyongyang International Football School integrates academic instruction on campus, eliminating the need for commuting. In that sense, the Pyongyang school functions as an even more intensive football development center than its French counterpart.

Rungna Island in Pyongyang is the city's equivalent of Seoul's Yeouido — a river island formed by sediment deposits in the Taedong River, which runs through the heart of the capital. Its name combines the characters for "silk" and "net," evoking the image of a silk net spread across the clear waters of the Taedong. The island measures 6 kilometers in circumference, 2.7 kilometers in length, and covers 1.3 square kilometers (about 1.3 million square meters, or roughly 400,000 pyeong, with 1 pyeong equaling 3.3 square meters). Beyond the football school, it is home to the large theme park Rungna People's Pleasure Ground and the Rungna May Day Stadium, a multipurpose venue with a capacity of 115,000 — the second largest of its kind in the world.

The May Day Stadium sits at the center of the island, with the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground to its west and Pyongyang International Football School to its east.

The May Day Stadium predates Kim Jong-un's rule. Completed on International Workers' Day — May 1 — in 1989, it takes its name from that date. Shortly after its completion, in August of that year, it hosted the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang. That event is also remembered for a remarkable episode in South Korean history: Lim Su-kyung, then a student of French at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, traveled to Pyongyang as a South Korean representative without government authorization. She returned on foot through Panmunjom and was subsequently arrested on charges of violating the National Security Act, sparking intense debate at home and abroad.

The stadium is also where President Moon delivered a speech to a crowd of more than 100,000 North Koreans during his September 2018 visit to Pyongyang for inter-Korean summit talks. The venue had long been described as the world's largest multipurpose stadium, with an original capacity of 150,000, which is why early reports said Moon addressed a crowd of 150,000. The stadium was reconstructed in 2014 with a reduced capacity of 115,000, however, making that the more accurate upper estimate for the crowd that day.

With the stadium's capacity reduced to 115,000, India's Narendra Modi Stadium — which holds 132,000 spectators — became the world's largest multipurpose stadium. That venue was also rebuilt on the site of a previous stadium and completed in 2020.

The Rungna People's Pleasure Ground was also completed shortly after Kim Jong-un took power, on July 25, 2012. If the defining slogan of Kim Jong-il's era was "Songun" — military first — Kim Jong-un had emphasized improving people's livelihoods even before taking power and elevated raising living standards to a national goal from the outset of his rule. The shift from Kim Jong-il's military-first line to a "people-first" approach under Kim Jong-un is exemplified by the Rungna Island development. The pleasure ground's first phase included a dolphin performance venue with 1,460 seats, an amusement area with rides such as a carousel and a rotating aircraft ride, a water play area, and an indoor entertainment hall. A second phase reportedly added a cable car, an aquarium, a mini-golf course, a 4D movie theater, and a maze attraction.

Taken together, the Rungna Island development that accelerated under Kim Jong-un reflects two governing priorities: building the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground to raise living standards, and constructing Pyongyang International Football School — North Korea's answer to Clairefontaine — to strengthen the country's global football competitiveness.

When Kim raised the idea of inter-Korean basketball rather than football at the 2018 Pyongyang summit, five years had already passed since he founded the football school. He was maintaining a poker face while quietly running a long-term plan to build North Korea's football capabilities — much as he kept a poker face while pursuing nuclear development before eventually declaring the completion of North Korea's nuclear deterrent.

North Korea's football program has not yet reached the level of "nuclear completion," but the returns on years of quiet investment are beginning to show.

North Korea's Naegohyang Women's Football Club claimed the Asian women's club football title on May 23, defeating Japan's Tokyo Verdy Beleza in the 2025-2026 AFC Women's Champions League final at Suwon Sports Complex in Suwon.

The AFC Women's Champions League (AWCL) determines the top women's professional club in Asia. Suwon FC Women of South Korea, Naegohyang of Pyongyang, Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan, and Melbourne City of Australia reached the semifinals. After Suwon faced Pyongyang and Tokyo faced Melbourne, the two clubs from Pyongyang and Tokyo advanced to the final — where the North Korean side prevailed.

Naegohyang won the final 1-0, with captain Kim Kyong-yong scoring the decisive goal in the 44th minute of the first half. The victory made Naegohyang the first North Korean club to win the tournament, including its predecessor competition, the AFC Women's Club Championship. The club also collected the $1 million (about 1.5 billion won) prize.

Naegohyang will also represent Asia at the FIFA Women's Champions Cup, a competition that brings together the six club champions from each confederation to determine the world's best club side.

North Korean women's football has demonstrated global competitiveness well beyond this tournament — winning the 2024 U-20 World Cup, the U-17 World Cup in both 2024 and 2025, and the U-17 Asian Cup this year. CNN predicted that North Korea would make a strong impact at the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

CNN attributed North Korea's global competitiveness in women's football to its systematic youth development program. Kim Kyong-yong, captain of Naegohyang and the tournament's MVP, is a prime product of that system. She began playing football at age 10, progressed through age-group national teams, and now starts for both her club and the senior national team as a forward.

The foundation of North Korea's football talent pipeline is Pyongyang International Football School on Rungna Island. Its initial enrollment was reported at 80 students, but it now has several hundred students between the ages of 7 and 17.

The school recruits by identifying and admitting talented players from football programs at youth sports schools across the country.

Under North Korea's 12-year compulsory education system — one year of upper kindergarten, five years of primary school, three years of lower middle school, and three years of upper middle school — students at Pyongyang International Football School are divided into corresponding year groups. They receive both general academic instruction in subjects such as Korean language, mathematics, and physics, alongside football training.

Football instructors are drawn from former players who have completed university education after their playing careers, while general academic teachers are selected for their academic ability and knowledge of football.

The school has produced results not only in women's football but in the men's game as well. Han Kwang-song, who signed with Juventus in Italy's Serie A — one of Europe's top five leagues — and Pak Kwang-ryong of SKN St. Pölten in Austria are among its graduates.

According to Choson Sinbo, the newspaper of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, Pyongyang International Football School won seven international tournaments and produced six tournament MVPs in its first decade of operation.

North Korea's KCNA said the school has "continuously innovated its education and training methods since its founding, nurturing promising young footballers." It also said that "quite a few graduates are now distinguishing themselves in various domestic competitions."

North Korean state media have also highlighted the school's use of advanced technology to develop players suited to the modern game. Pyongyang Broadcasting, the country's external radio service, reported that the school has recently focused on "raising the level of scientific and information-based training," with various equipment and research findings being introduced.

The propaganda outlet Naenara said the school "places training emphasis on developing students into intelligent, creative players," and is "concentrating efforts on improving their ability to respond to rapidly changing match situations and their tactical awareness."

The teenage students who enrolled when the school first opened are now reaching the senior national team in earnest, and analysts expect North Korea's men's team to follow the women's side onto the international stage with notable results within the next few years.

Naegohyang Women's Football Club, which competes in North Korea's women's professional football league, is backed by Naegohyang Trading Company, a state-owned enterprise in Pyongyang that produces and sells tobacco, food, sporting goods, and electronics. The conglomerate — one of North Korea's largest companies — also reached its current position under Kim Jong-un's "guidance."

Shortly after taking power in 2012, Kim established the State Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission to oversee sports affairs at the national level. The company traces its origins to Naegohyang Joint Venture Company, founded by Jang Song-thaek — Kim's uncle by marriage and the commission's first chairman.

The company began as a tobacco producer before gaining an exclusive license to manufacture sporting goods through a joint venture with China. A women's football club was established under its umbrella, eventually becoming today's Naegohyang Women's Football Club. After Jang was purged in December 2013, the company was renamed Naegohyang Trading Company and now oversees subsidiaries dealing in tobacco, food, sporting goods, and electronics.

According to Joson Today, a North Korean external propaganda outlet, the Naegohyang brand had grown into a competitor to global sporting goods companies such as Adidas and Puma as of 2016.

Tobacco is another core business alongside sporting goods. Kim, who reportedly took up smoking during his time studying in Switzerland, is said to favor several cigarette brands produced by the company — including "Achim" and "7·27" — as well as "Konsol," made by Taesong Tobacco Factory.

In 2024, the company registered trademarks in Russia under the Naegohyang brand for tobacco, alcohol, food, and sporting goods.

The Economist described the company as one that "started as a tobacco manufacturer and now produces a diverse and seemingly unrelated range of products including soju, hygiene products, sporting goods, and electronics — one of North Korea's major conglomerates." Behind the development of North Korean football today — from nurturing players to founding professional clubs — Kim Jong-un's "guidance" has been the decisive force.