North Korea’s Naegohyang FC defeated Tokyo Verdy Beleza 1-0 to win soccer's Asian Women’s Champions League on Saturday in the South Korean city of Suwon.
Kim Kyong Yong scored the only goal of the game, her fourth of the tournament, just before halftime.
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Naegohyang Women's FC's Ri Myong Gum, right, battles for the ball against Tokyo Verdy Beleza's Yuna Aoki during the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Tokyo Verdy Beleza's Rihona Ujihara, left, battles for the ball against Naegohyang Women's FC's Ri Myong Gum during the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Naegohyang Women's FC's players celebrate after winning the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match against Tokyo Verdy Beleza in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Naegohyang Women's FC's players celebrate on the podium after winning the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match against Tokyo Verdy Beleza in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Naegohyang Women's FC's Kim Kyong Yong, left, celebrates after scoring against Tokyo Verdy Beleza during the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The North Korean international forward, who also scored the winning goal in the semifinal win over South Korea’s Suwon FC on Wednesday, shot home from inside the area after receiving the ball from Kim Jung who broke free of the Japanese defense.
Watched by a sparse crowd at Suwon Sports Complex, just south of Seoul, the team from Pyongyang had more chances than Tokyo in what was a tight game and deserved to win just the second edition of the 12-team continental tournament, following Wuhan Jiangda’s triumph a year earlier.
The triumph continues unprecedented success for North Korea in women’s soccer. In 2024, the national team won both the U-20 and U-17 World Cups, and successfully defended the latter in 2025.
At a continental level, North Korea won the 2024 Women’s Asian Cup and the 2024 and 2026 U-17 tournament.
“We don’t have enough time to explain the evolution of our national football programs,” Naegohyang head coach Ri Yu Il said prior to the final.
“We have a specialized player development system. Players are well-trained from a young age and as they grow older, they contribute to good performances at AFC or FIFA competitions.”
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Naegohyang Women's FC's Ri Myong Gum, right, battles for the ball against Tokyo Verdy Beleza's Yuna Aoki during the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Tokyo Verdy Beleza's Rihona Ujihara, left, battles for the ball against Naegohyang Women's FC's Ri Myong Gum during the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Naegohyang Women's FC's players celebrate after winning the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match against Tokyo Verdy Beleza in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Naegohyang Women's FC's players celebrate on the podium after winning the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match against Tokyo Verdy Beleza in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Naegohyang Women's FC's Kim Kyong Yong, left, celebrates after scoring against Tokyo Verdy Beleza during the AFC Women's Champions League soccer final match in Suwon, South Korea, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
ACERRA, Italy (AP) — Families living in a toxic-waste polluted area around Naples were preparing to meet Pope Leo XIV during his pastoral visit on Saturday, carrying with them years of grief, anger and hopes for justice after losing children to cancer linked to a multi-billion mafia racket of dumping toxic waste.
The visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, comes on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s interest in carrying on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.
The European Court of Human Rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.
The court found Italian authorities had known since 1988 about the toxic pollution, blamed on the Camorra crime syndicate that controls waste disposal, but failed to take necessary steps to protect residents’ lives. The binding ruling gave Italy two years to set up a database about the toxic waste and verified health risks associated with living there.
The pope will visit the city of Acerra to meet families who lost young relatives to cancer, the human cost of environmental pollution. Bishop Antonio Di Donna estimated 150 young people died in the city of some 58,000 over the past three decades.
“We very much wanted the pope to meet with them because these children and young people who have died are, to all intents and purposes, victims of environmental pollution. There is a link, a correlation between pollution and the incidence of cancer,” Di Donna said.
The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25. Her father Angelo said he hopes to speak with the pope to explain their reality, “not for me … for the next generation.”
“I’d like to give these young people a future, so I’m asking for the pope’s help with this. That is, I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fires,’" he said.
Filomena Carolla plans to present the pope with a book containing memories from the life of her daughter, Tina De Angelis, who died of cancer at the age of 24.
“I’m just angry at the people who poisoned the soil, because what did our children have to do with it? What did they have to do with it, so young,” Carolla said.
Francis' plans to visit the area in 2020 were canceled by the pandemic.
A man enters a grocery store with posters of Pope Leo XIV ahead of his visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Acerra bishop Antonio Di Donna speaks during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Angelo Venturato talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to photos of his daughter Maria who died at the age of 25 of a cancer he claims to be connected to decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, in the southern town of Acerra, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
