SEOUL: North Korea’s Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning footballers received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital Pyongyang, AFP footage showed on Sunday, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic a week ago. Remarkably it was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea—largely closed off to the outside world—they also lifted the Women’s World Cup at under-20 level in September.

Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the plane approached the arrivals gate. Beaming players and their families celebrated together, with one mother, dressed in the traditional hanbok Korean dress, telling her footballing daughter: “You worked so hard.”

Jon Il Chong, who won the Golden Ball for best player at the U17 World Cup, told AFP: “It was the desire and honor of our team to give the respected fatherly Marshal Kim Jong Un the report of pleasure and victory. “I will train harder and harder in the future so that I will demonstrate the honor of North Korea throughout the world,” added Jon, who scored the vital 66th-minute equalizer against Spain that took the game to penalties.

Jon’s mother, Kim Yong Sil, told reporters: “I will continue to fulfil my responsibility as a mother to make my daughter a world-class football player and wave the national flag in the sky in triumph.” Giving thanks to the ruling Kim family and using sports achievements as a means to raise the national profile is a tradition for North Korean athletes and their families after notable victories. 

The victorious squad took to an open truck decorated with flowers and painted with the North Korean flag to drive through the city as they waved to people on the streets. Some people approached the vehicle to shake hands, with some men in military uniform saluting as the players passed.

While the secretive country’s men’s football team are currently ranked down at 111th in the world, their female counterparts have won two youth World Cups in two months. State media proclaimed that the country’s teenage players were “the attention of football experts, fans and spectators across the world” after the U17 triumph last Sunday. North Korea have qualified for the Women’s World Cup four times, reaching the quarter-finals in 2007. They are ranked ninth in the world. — AFP