Pakistan, May 18 -- A North Korean women's football team landed in South Korea on Sunday, marking the first visit by a sports team from the isolated country to its southern neighbour in eight years, to play in the Asian Champions League semi-finals.

Naegohyang Women's FC - which means "My Hometown" in Korean - emerged from South Korea's Incheon International Airport near Seoul surrounded by throngs of reporters and supporters holding welcome signs. A total of 39 North Korean players and staff, dressed in identical dark jackets and skirts and wheeling pink suitcases, were greeted by dozens of people from South Korean civic groups holding welcome signs. "We welcome you!" they said as the players walked past along a cordoned-off route under...