# South Korea women's national handball team

The South Korea women's national handball team is the national team of South Korea. Since 1984, the Korean team has not only participated constantly in Olympic Games but also ranked among the top four nations every time until 2012. Korea grabbed the gold medal in 1988 and 1992, won the silver medal in 1984, 1996, 2004 and took bronze medal in 2008. They have earned two World Championship medals so far: In 1995, they also won the World Championship title in Austria/Hungary 1995 World Women's Handball Championship, they came off third to secure the bronze medal at the Croatia in 2003 World Women's Handball Championship. It is a twelve-time Asian Champion, the tournament has been won by any other nation only twice.
Both the men's and women's and children's teams failed to qualify in the regional qualifiers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 2007 August due to the biased refereeing, but the International Handball Federation ordered replays of both qualifying tournaments after acknowledging biased officiating by Middle Eastern referees. South Korea beat Japan in both the men's and women's matches and qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 January. However, the Executive Committee of the Kuwait-based federation, which had rejected the International Handball Federation's ruling to hold the replays, agreed to fine Japan and South Korea $1,000 and issued a warning to both countries. In addition, the Asian Handball Federation appealed the IHF's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled the Asian women's qualification invalid and forced the Korean ladies to play in the final Olympic qualifying tournament. The replay was decided to be invalid by the Court. The Korean women's team earned their ticket to the Beijing Olympics at the Olympic qualifying game held at Nîmes, France. In the semi-final match of 2008 Beijing Olympic games with Norway, Norway's deciding goal was requested to be annulled by the Korean delegation, because they claimed the ball had not crossed the goal line before the end whistle of the game. Korea's appeal was turned down by the IHF's Disciplinary Commission, confirming the end result to be 29–28 in favor of Norway.
The 2008 film Forever the Moment is a fictionalized account of the teams' journey to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

## Results
### Olympic Games

| Year | Position | Tournament | Host |
| 1984 | 2 | Los Angeles Olympics | United States |
| 1988 | 1 | Seoul Olympics | South Korea |
| 1992 | 1 | Barcelona Olympics | Spain |
| 1996 | 2 | Atlanta Olympics | United States |
| 2000 | 4 | Sydney Olympics | Australia |
| 2004 | 2 | Athens Olympics | Greece |
| 2008 | 3 | Beijing Olympics | China |
| 2012 | 4 | London Olympics | Great Britain |
| 2016 | 10 | Rio Olympics | Brazil |
| 2020 | 8 | Tokyo Olympics | Japan |
| 2024 | 10 | Paris Olympics | France |

### World Championship

* 1978 – 10–12th place
* 1982 – 6th place
* 1986 – 11th place
* 1990 – 11th place
* 1993 – 11th place
* 1995 – Champions
* 1997 – 5th place
* 1999 – 9th place
* 2001 – 15th place
* 2003 – 3rd place
* 2005 – 8th place
* 2007 – 6th place
* 2009 – 6th place
* 2011 – 11th place
* 2013 – 12th place
* 2015 – 14th place
* 2017 – 13th place
* 2019 – 11th place
* 2021 – 14th place
* 2023 – 22nd place
* 2025 – Qualified

### Asian Games

* 1990 – Champions
* 1994 – Champions
* 1998 – Champions
* 2002 – Champions
* 2006 – Champions
* 2010 – 3rd place
* 2014 – Champions
* 2018 – Champions
* 2022 – Runners-up

### Asian Championship

* 1987 – Champions
* 1989 – Champions
* 1991 – Champions
* 1993 – Champions
* 1995 – Champions
* 1997 – Champions
* 1999 – Champions
* 2000 – Champions
* 2002 – Runners-up
* 2004 – 3rd place
* 2006 – Champions
* 2008 – Champions
* 2010 – Runners-up
* 2012 – Champions
* 2015 – Champions
* 2017 – Champions
* 2018 – Champions
* 2021 – Champions
* 2022 – Champions
* 2024 – Runners-up

### Other tournaments

* Carpathian Trophy 1994 – 2nd place
* Carpathian Trophy 2006 – 2nd place
* Møbelringen Cup 2017 – 4th place

## Team
### Current squad

Roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
A 22-player squad was announced on 14 May 2024. It was reduced to 17 players on 2 July 2024.
Head coach: Henrik Signell
* No.
* Pos.
* Name
* Date of birth (age)
* Height
* App.
* Goals
* Club
* 2
* RW
* Song Ji-young
* (1995-05-05)5 May 1995 (aged 29)
* 1.64 m
* 29
* 55
* Seoul City
* 7
* LW
* Shin Eun-joo
* (1993-09-09)9 September 1993 (aged 30)
* 1.70 m
* 56
* 106
* Incheon City
* 11
* RB
* Ryu Eun-hee
* (1990-02-24)24 February 1990 (aged 34)
* 1.79 m
* 171
* 524
* Győri ETO KC
* 12
* GK
* Jeong Jin-hui
* (1999-03-24)24 March 1999 (aged 25)
* 1.80 m
* 33
* 0
* Seoul City
* 16
* GK
* Park Sae-young
* (1994-08-11)11 August 1994 (aged 29)
* 1.76 m
* 67
* 0
* Wonderful Samcheok
* 18
* LB
* Han Mi-seul
* (1993-08-13)13 August 1993 (aged 30)
* 1.78 m
* 48
* 79
* Incheon City
* 19
* P
* Kang Eun-hye
* (1996-04-17)17 April 1996 (aged 28)
* 1.86 m
* 65
* 90
* SK Sugar Gliders
* 23
* LB
* Woo Bit-na
* (2001-10-23)23 October 2001 (aged 22)
* 1.72 m
* 10
* 36
* Seoul City
* 24
* CB
* Kang Kyung-min
* (1996-11-08)8 November 1996 (aged 27)
* 1.65 m
* 19
* 42
* SK Sugar Gliders
* 26
* RB
* Kang Eun-seo
* (1999-03-04)4 March 1999 (aged 25)
* 1.69 m
* 6
* 1
* Incheon City
* 27
* RW
* Jeon Ji-yeon
* (2003-05-02)2 May 2003 (aged 21)
* 1.68 m
* 5
* 5
* Wonderful Samcheok
* 29
* LB
* Kim Da-young
* (1996-09-16)16 September 1996 (aged 27)
* 1.70 m
* 0
* 0
* Busan
* 31
* P
* Gim Bo-eun
* (1997-12-08)8 December 1997 (aged 26)
* 1.77 m
* 32
* 68
* Wonderful Samcheok
* 33
* CB
* Shin Jin-mi
* (1998-06-23)23 June 1998 (aged 26)
* 1.67 m
* 6
* 9
* Busan

### Notable players

* Lim O-kyeong – World Handball Player of the Year (1996)
* Kim Hyun-mee – World Handball Player of the Year (1989)