Source :- THE AGE NEWS
North Korea has made headlines at sporting events for dispatching state-sanctioned cheerleaders to support its athletes. The groups, almost entirely women, file into stadiums in matching uniforms and cheer in choreographed unison.
There isn’t any such cheer squad at the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup in Australia this month for Kim Jong Un’s beloved North Korea women’s soccer, but one man in Sydney hopes he can make up for it.
Joon Shik Shin watches a performance of Su Hee Cho & Co, a traditional Korean percussionist group, during a celebration of the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup in Parramatta Square.Credit: Audrey Richardson
Joon Shik Shin’s involvement in the Asian Cup began when he received an inquiry from the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture in South Korea. Its director, Cheong Wooksik, was recruiting fans to travel to Sydney to support the North Korea and South Korea teams in the Cup. Wooksik was hoping Shin, who is an Australian citizen and lived in Sydney for 32 years before returning to live in South Korea, would be able to help him co-ordinate the fans and promote a message of reunification between the countries.
Born four years after the end of the Korean War, Shin has long felt North and South Korea are his home and several sporting moments, coincidentally in Sydney, have further convinced him of that.
Living in the Harbour City in 1989, Shin was in the crowd for the lower-tier World Ice Hockey Championship matches that were played in Australia, and it was the first time many people, including Shin, had seen the two Korean countries competing against each other.
“History happened in Sydney,” Shin said. “The [North Korean] players are big boys, [but] they are crying because they didn’t expect that support to come from the Australian community.”
Pak Jung Chul (left) North Korea’s judo coach, and Chung Eun-Sun (right), a South Korean basketball player, are followed by Korean athletes as they carry a flag representing a united Korea during the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.Credit: AP
The match occurred during a period of peace activism that followed North Korea’s boycott of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul when the countries failed to negotiate co-hosting the event. Months after the ice hockey game in Sydney, South Korean students created a “unification envoy” to send to North Korea to counter the boycott.
Then in 2000, again in Sydney, the countries walked together during the Olympic Games opening ceremony and carried the Korean Peninsula flag.
But Shin says any progress from that era has long since faded. That’s why he believes this Asian Cup, in which both countries are still in the competition, and may meet in the final, is the perfect opportunity to start talking about peace again.
“This event can help people,” he said. “We want to get peace in the Korean Peninsula.”
Shin was there to greet the South and North Korean fans at Sydney Airport late last month and has attended each of the team’s games in Sydney with a group of other like-minded fans. If both teams make it to the final, he will be there – Peninsula flag in hand.
“‘Dream Fearless’, I like this one so much,” Shin said of the tournament’s motto. “Many Korean community people and many people in the Korean Peninsula, they want to dream fearless [about] peace in Korea. That’s my hope.”
Australia play North Korea in the Asian Cup quarter-finals on Friday in Perth at 9pm (AEDT).
