Incheon, South Korea —
South Korea received North Korean athletes for the first time in more than seven years on Sunday, when a women’s soccer team arrived to contest the Asian club championship.
Thirty-nine players and staff from Pyongyang’s Naegohyang Women’s Football Club rushed past a crowd of media and security at Incheon International Airport after the team arrived on a flight from Beijing.
Arriving smartly dressed in matching blazers and skirts, the North Korean players walked straight to their bus, without glancing at the gathered pro-unification groups cheering, “Welcome.”
The players and staff remained silent and emotionless until the door of their bus closed and left for Suwon under police escort.
