North Korean midfielder poised to join K League 2 in South

Football

Published: 04 Mar. 2024, 13:57 Updated: 04 Mar. 2024, 17:11

North Korean midfielder poised to join K League 2 in South

North Korea's Ri Yong-jik attempts a header at the 2017 East Asian Football Confederation (EAFF) E-1 Championship at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo in December 2017. [YONHAP]

North Korean midfielder Ri Yong-jik is reportedly set to join K League 2 side FC Anyang this season, becoming the latest North Korean national team alum to bring his professional career to the South.

Ri, who was born in Japan and holds North Korean citizenship, has spent the last decade playing for teams in Japan, clocking the most time on the second-division J2 League pitch.

He has made about two dozen caps for North Korea at the senior level and was on the pitch for the North-South face-off in the group stage of the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship in Japan, which South Korea won 1-0 after an own goal. He was also on the pitch for the infamously barren North-South World Cup qualifier in 2019 and drew the first yellow card of the goalless match played in an empty Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang.

North Korea's Ri Yong-jik, second from left, struggles with South Korea's Hwang Ui-jo in the third Group H match of the second qualifying round for the World Cup at Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea in October 2019. [YONHAP]

Ri will join FC Anyang on a free transfer, according to Korean media outlet Chosun Ilbo. He most recently played for J3 side Iwate Grulla Moriok and departed after one season following the end of his contract. The K League 2 club is set to officially announce Ri’s move following a medical, according to the report.

The 33-year-old joins a small but sizeable list of North Korean footballers who’ve landed a gig on this side of the DMZ.

North Korea teammate An Byong-jun currently plays as a forward for K League 2 side Busan IPark, returning to the team after a brief stint at recently-relegated Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

Ri also follows former player-turned-celebrity coach Jong Tae-se, who represented North Korea on the international stage and briefly played for the then-K League 1 side Bluewings in between a career in Japan, and now helms FC Wonder Woman, a team in the celebrity TV show “Kick a Goal.”

An Yong-hak, who, like Ri and other North Korean national team alum, is ethnically Korean and was born in Japan, also had stints with Busan IPark and the Bluewings in between seasons in the J.League.

North Korea has its own domestic football league, called the DPR Korea Football League, which supposedly has three divisions and a promotion-relegation system. It’s governed by the DPR Korea Football Association, a member of the AFC, but there are few public details about the organization and it is unclear how many teams play in the league and how much, and if, players are paid.

And international careers can be more complicated for footballers with a North Korean passport — one thing that all of the North Korean footballers who have played in South Korea had in common was that they were born in Japan and either held a Japanese passport or were eligible for a South Korean passport.

Han Kwang-song, a prolific striker who made his professional debut in Italy and became the first North Korean to score in the top-tier Serie A, was forced to end his stint at Qatari club Al-Duhail in 2021 before the end of his contract because of UN sanctions that banned North Koreans from working overseas.

The 25-year-old forward has not reported signing a new international contract since, although he made his return to the pitch with North Korea in two World Cup qualifiers in November, scoring a goal in the 6-1 victory over Myanmar.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]