The national youth soccer team, now in the Netherlands for this year's world championships, hopes to match its record-high finish of fourth in 1983.

The team did not qualify for the first tournament in 1977 and failed to advance to the second round in 1979 and 1981.

In 1977, the team under coach Park Jong-hwan lost its first match to Scotland 2-0, but beat host Mexico and Australia by the score of 2-1 each to reach the quarterfinals.

Against Uruguay, Shin Yeon-ho scored both goals in a 2-1 win as the team advanced to the semifinals. The team's run ended at the hands of powerhouse Brazil, 2-1.

South Korea remained absent for the next three tournaments, but in 1991, it joined North Korea to field a joint team in Portugal. There, the team upset Argentina 1-0 thanks to North Korean Cho In-chol's goal before falling to Brazil 5-1 in the quarterfinals.

In 1993, the team lost all three preliminaries to England, Turkey and the United States and failed to qualify in 1995.

In 1997, South Korea tied Mali in the preliminaries but suffered a 10-3 humiliation against Brazil and a 4-2 loss to France.

The team stopped short of the second round in 1999 and failed to qualify in 2001.

In 2003, current youth coach Park Seong-hwa took the team to the second round, where it lost to Japan 2-1.