Korea DPR national football team

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Korea DPR

Nickname

Chollima

Association

DPR Korea Football Association

Head coach

Han Hyong-Yi

Most caps

Top scorer

FIFA code

PRK

FIFA ranking

110

Highest FIFA ranking

57 (November 1993)

Lowest FIFA ranking

181 (October 1998)

Elo ranking





Home kit





Away kit

First international

Burma 0 - 0 North Korea

(Rangoon, Burma; March 22, 1964)

Largest win

North Korea 21 - 0 Guam

(Taipei, Taiwan; March 11, 2005)

Worst defeat

Bulgaria 6 - 1 North Korea

(Sofia, Bulgaria; May 25, 1974)

Poland 5 - 0 North Korea

(Montreal, Canada; July 25, 1976)

World Cup

Appearances

1 (First in 1966)

Best result

Quarterfinals, 1966

AFC Asian Cup

Appearances

2 (First in 1980)

Best result

Fourth place, 1980

The national football team of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (recognized as Korea DPR by FIFA) is the national team of North Korea and is controlled by the DPR Korea Football Association. Their shining moment came in the 1966 World Cup at Middlesbrough F.C. home Ayresome Park, when North Korea upset Italy 1-0 to gain a spot in the quarterfinals. There, they went 3-0 up against Portugal, but the brilliance of Eusébio (and his four goals) stopped the fairy tale run, 5-3. The North Korean team was the first Asian team to progress beyond the first round of the World Cup finals. The documentary film The Game of Their Lives by Dan Gordon is about the seven surviving members in 2002 of the 1966 national team.

The current team is composed of both native North Koreans and Zainichi Koreans born in Japan, of which Ahn Young-Hak is the best known; due to the country's political situation, only zainichi are allowed to join clubs in countries outside North Korea, and it is under their own terms, rather than through state intervention. Similarly, fans who follow the team when playing away matches are often zainichi, as ordinary Northerners are usually not allowed to travel abroad.