South and North to face off in Paris Olympics women's football qualifiers

South Korea will face North Korea in the second round of Asian qualifiers for the women’s football tournaments at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

South Korea was drawn in Group B for the second round of Asian qualifiers, alongside China, Thailand and North Korea.

Twelve teams were drawn into three groups in a ceremony at the Asian Football Confederation House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday.

Australia will host Group A, with Chinese Taipei, the Philippines and Iran also competing in the group. China will host Group B, while Japan, Vietnam and India join hosts Uzbekistan in Group C.

The second round games will take place between Oct. 23 and Nov. 1. Only four teams will progress out of the group stage: The three winning teams and the top-ranked runner-up.

North Korea, Japan, Australia, China and South Korea all earned an automatic by into the second round as the five highest ranked nations on the official FIFA rankings as of Dec. 9, 2022, with the other seven teams advancing through the first round of qualifying.

North Korea was the highest-ranked team in Asia in Dec, 2002, at No. 10 in the world, above Japan at No. 11, Australia at No. 12, China at No. 14 and South Korea at No. 15.

That ranking now looks markedly different, with North Korea having dropped off the ranking completely after failing to play enough matches during the last 48 months.

Australia is now actually the highest ranked team in the competition, at No. 10, followed by Japan at No. 11, China at No. 13 and South Korea at No. 17. Vietnam completes the top five, at No. 33.

All of those countries will get plenty of practice in before the October qualifiers, with the 2023 Australia-New Zealand Women’s World Cup kicking off on July 20.

Co-hosts Australia are among six AFC teams competing in the World Cup, alongside South Korea, China, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]