Hwaebul Sports Club is a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club from Pochon,

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, founded in 2013. It is the sports club of the

Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League The Socialist Patriotic Youth League is the main North Korean youth organization. Directly under the party Central Committee, it is the only mass organization expressly mentioned in the charter of the Workers' Party of Korea. Youth under 15 ...

and is based at the 5,000 capacity

Hwaebul Stadium Hwaebul Sports Club is a professional association football, football club from Pochon, North Korea, founded in 2013. It is the sports club of the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League and is based at the 5,000 capacity Hwaebul Stadium. The club ...

. The club plays in the

DPR Korea Premier Football League The DPR Korea Premier Football League () is the men's top professional football division of the North Korean football league system. The DPR Korea Premier Football League was established in 2017, replacing previous football tournaments held in a ...

History

The team was given its name by

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...

when it was founded, in the hopes that the club would be a guiding light for football in North Korea, as "Hwaebul" means "torch" in Korean. Despite its newness, the club has already achieved considerable success, finishing third in their inaugural season, winning the Highest Class Football League in the second season, along with securing several wins in the

Paektusan Prize The Football at the Paektusan Prize Sports Games is an annual association football men's competition in Multi-sport event - Paektusan Prize Sports Games in North Korea, organised by the DPR Korea Football Association The Democratic People's R ...

, the Poch'ŏnbo Torch Prize, and other competitions. The club made its competitive debut in the 2013 competition of the Poch'ŏnbo Torch Prize, in which forward Kim Yong-gwang was top scorer with twelve goals, seven scored in the first round and five in the second round. After having finished second in the Highest Class in 2017, Hwaebul are currently taking part in their first continental competition, the

2018 AFC Cup The 2018 AFC Cup was the 15th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya from Iraq won the title for the third consecutive year, defeating Altyn Asyr ...

. They defeated

Erchim FC Khaan Khuns-Erchim Football Club () is a professional football club from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia who have been playing in the Mongolian Premier League, which they have won ten times,

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

with a 7–0 aggregate score in the

qualifying play-offs Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

, and have advanced to the group stage, where they will play matches against

April 25 Events Pre-1600 * 404 BC – Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion. * 775 – The Battle of Bagrevand puts an end to an Armenian rebellion against th ...

of North Korea, Hang Yuen of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, and Benfica of Macau to try to qualify for the

knockout stage A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

Managers

Jo In-chol Cho In-chol (; born 2 October 1973) is a North Korean former footballer. He represented North Korea on at least seventeen occasions between 1990 and 1993, scoring twice. He also represented the unified Korean team at the 1991 FIFA World Youth ...

(first) * Il Mun-ho (current)

Continental record

Achievements

Domestic

DPR Korea League The DPR Korea Football League (Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국 축구 리그) is North Korea's association football league. It has a first division DPR Korea Premier Football League, a second division DPR Korea Football League 2, ...

: 3 **Champions:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

**Third place:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Hwaebul Cup The Hwaebul Cup (홰불, ''Torch'') is an annual association football competition in men's Football in North Korea, domestic football in North Korea. It is organised by the DPR Korea Football Association, the governing body of football in North K ...

: 2 **Runners-up:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Osandŏk Prize Football at the Osandok Prize Sports Games is an association football competition held for professional teams in the Multi-sport events - Osandok Prize Sports Games in North Korea. It is held and overseen by the DPR Korea Football Association ...

: 3 **Champions:

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

: 1 **Champions:

* Poch'ŏnbo Torch Prize: 3 **Champions:

**Runners-up:

References

External links

Hwaebul Sports Club
at Soccerway {{DPR Korea League Football clubs in North Korea