Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, watched a demonstration match between the Naegohyang Women's Football Team (Naegohyang) and the under-17 (U-17) women's national team, held during an event marking the 80th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Cadres School. Both teams recently took first place at international tournaments, prompting interpretations that Kim is using their achievements to bolster regime cohesion.

On the 2nd, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim visited the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Cadres School, which marked its 80th anniversary the previous day, and attended the commemorative event. The Central Cadres School is North Korea's top institution for training and retraining party officials. Rodong Sinmun, read by North Korean residents, gave the news prominent coverage across pages 1 to 4 of its six-page issue.

As the final program of the day's event, a demonstration match was held between Naegohyang and the U-17 national team. Recently, Naegohyang won the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League, whose semifinals and final were held in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, while the U-17 national team won the AFC Women's Asian Cup.

Kim met the players and coaches of both teams to offer congratulations and encouragement, and took commemorative photos. North Korean media released photographs of Kim shaking hands with players wearing gold medals around their necks and smiling with Naegohyang players, who appeared to be crying with emotion and cheering, in the background.

The demonstration match was viewed not only by Kim but also by attendees of the Central Cadres School anniversary event. In the published photos, crowds holding the national flag of North Korea densely encircle the soccer field during play. The stadium scoreboard lists Naegohyang's opponent as 'Jang Subong,' which appears to refer to the U-17 national team.

Yang Moo-jin, a distinguished professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said, "By linking the achievements of women's soccer to the consideration and benevolence of the supreme leader, they sought to elicit loyalty," adding, "By showing participants in the Central Cadres School event the lesson that international successes come under the Party's leadership, it appears they aimed to strengthen regime cohesion."

In his speech at the 80th-anniversary commemorative event of the Central Cadres School, Kim said that ideological control over the younger generation of cadres must be strengthened. He said, "The reason we value Party school education above all else is also related to the fact that, due to the generational change in the revolution, young people who lack Party refinement and whose sensibilities differ from those of the previous generation now constitute the main force of the cadre ranks."

North Korean outlets reported that Kim "stressed the reality that young cadres who have not experienced stern ordeals such as war and reconstruction are increasingly showing differences from previous generations in their spiritual world and dignity, and the ways to overcome this," and that he said, "The younger the generation, the more they must devote greater effort to Party tempering and revolutionization, and even in the content and methods of education themselves, they must set higher levels and goals than before." This is interpreted as reflecting the perception that ideological slackening among the young generation is a factor weakening regime cohesion.