Hwaebul Sports Club is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club from

Pochon Poch'ŏn County is a ''kun'', or county, in Ryanggang Province, North Korea. It looks westward across the Amrok River at China. Geography The Masingryong Mountains pass through the county, which slopes downward gradually to the west. The county ...

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 shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

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

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

and is based at the 5,000 capacity

Hwaebul Stadium Hwaebul Sports Club is an association 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. They are presently playing in ...

. They are presently playing in the

DPR Korea Premier Football League The DPR Korea Premier Football League is a North Korean association football league that serves as the top-tier of the North Korean football league system. As of the 2017–18 season, featuring thirteen teams that play a full season of home-an ...

History

The team was given its name by

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

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 Re ...

, 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 won the title for the third consecutive year, defeating Altyn Asyr in the fin ...

. They defeated

Erchim FC Khaan Khuns - Erchim FC ( mn, "Хаан Хүнс-Эрчим" Хөлбөмбөгийн Клуб) 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; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

with a 7–0 aggregate score in the

qualifying play-offs Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional expe ...

, and have advanced to the group stage, where they will play matches against April 25 of North Korea, Hang Yuen of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, 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 each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

Current squad

Managers

* Jo In-chol (first) * Il Mun-ho (current)

Continental record

Achievements

Domestic

* DPR Korea League: 3 **Champions:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

**Third place:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Hwaebul Cup The Hwaebul Cup (홰불, ''Torch'') is an annual association football competition in men's domestic football in North Korea, organised by the DPR Korea Football Association. The competition is held for Youth Day, 28 August, one of North Korea's ...

: 2 **Runners-up:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

* Osandŏk Prize: 3 **Champions:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

: 1 **Champions:

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

**Runners-up:

References

External links

Team's profile
– ''Soccerway.com'' {{DPR Korea League Football clubs in North Korea