The first official match of the North Korean national football team was played on 22 March 1964, in Rangoon, against Burma, as part of the 1964 Olympic qualifiers.

They won easily (7–0 over the two matches), but were forced to forfeit the final phase of the tournament because the IOC decided to ban any athlete who participated in the GANEFO—which several footballers from the national team did.

The qualification of North Korea posed a diplomatic problem for the organizing country, the United Kingdom; since the Korean War, they had not recognized the legitimacy of the Pyongyang government and would not fly its flag or play its national anthem.

The problem was only partly solved before the start of the competition in July 1966; the North Korean flag was flown alongside those of the other participants, but the national anthem was not played before the team's matches.

[8] In the 1966 FIFA World Cup, they were drawn into group 4, along with the USSR, Italy and Chile, the first time North Korea would face teams from another continent.

The Chollimas lost their first game against the Soviets, then managed a 1–1 draw against Chile (Pak Seung-zin scoring North Korea's first goal at a World Cup).

[9][10] In the quarter-finals, North Korea faced Portugal, which had eliminated reigning world champions Brazil in the group stage.

After 25 minutes of play, the Koreans led 3–0 (goals from Pak Seung-zin, Yang Seung-kook and Li Dong-woon) but began to lose their discipline.

Portuguese star player Eusébio went on to score four goals, and José Augusto added another to defeat North Korea 5–3.

Pak Seung-zin remains North Korea's top scorer in the FIFA World Cup with two goals in four games.

In 1980, this time with Yang Seung-kook on the bench, the North Koreans took part in 1980 AFC Asian Cup qualification which saw successes against Thailand and Malaysia.

After opening the scoring early, North Korea conceded two goals by Chung Hae-won in the last ten minutes and saw their journey come to an end in the semi-final, their best performance in the Asian Cup of Nations.

North Korean progressed through the first round (drawing against Syria and Saudi Arabia and victory against Thailand), then beat Japan in the quarter-finals.

For the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, they entered Group 4 alongside Japan and Singapore, two nations they had beaten four years previously.

The following year, in the 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, North Korea finished top of their first-round pool, winning all three of their home matches.

North Korea finished the 1992 AFC Asian Cup qualification in first, ahead of Macao, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.

Placed into Group 8 along with Thailand, Malaysia and Chinese Taipei, Myong Dong-chan's men only lost to the Thais, and booked their ticket for the final tournament.

The North Korean selection had a good run which ended on the third step of the podium, after a defeat in the semi-finals against Tajikistan then a big success (4–0) in the third-placed match against Myanmar.

In the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the Chollimas easily dismissed Mongolia (4–1 and 5–1) then finished second behind South Korea, without any defeats or even conceding a goal in the third round.

At the end of the year, the North Koreans managed to qualify for the 2008 East Asian Football Championship, after beating Hong Kong.

After finishing top of their first round group, ahead of Turkmenistan, they swept Myanmar 5–0 in the semi-finals before winning, after the penalty shootout, again facing the Turkmens in the final.

[12] North Korea went on to lose their final match against Côte d'Ivoire 3-0 to record the worst performance of any team at that year's World Cup.

Following this competition, the team restored its image by winning several friendly matches before finishing on the podium of the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup, including a prestigious victory over Japan (2–1).

This led to the dismissal of Kim Chang-bok, replaced by Jørn Andersen, the second European coach to manage North Korea after the Hungarian Pál Csernai.

This qualifying campaign gave rise to a triple postponement by the AFC of the home match against Malaysia, at the request of the Malaysian Federation, fearing the poisoning of its players if they went to North Korea following diplomatic tensions between the two countries - linked to the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the North Korean leader's half-brother, at Kuala Lumpur airport on 13 February 2017.

The meetings between the two teams were finally held on neutral ground in Thailand, where North Korea needed two victories to give them a chance to qualify, dominating Malaysia (4–1 and 4–1).

At the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship, the Chollima failed to win a single match and finished 4th and last in the final round, with two opening losses against Japan and South Korea (0–1 each time) before ending the competition in a draw (1–1) against China.

North Korea then participated in the 2nd round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and beat Lebanon (2–0) thanks to a double from Jong Il-gwan.

The country's move was confirmed by FIFA and the AFC as North Korea sought to enhance its football reputation, already damaged due to the isolation related to the pandemic.

On 21 November, North Korea thrashed Myanmar 6–1 at the Thuwunna Stadium with Jong Il-gwan scoring a hat-trick in the match.