North Korea has participated in five AFC Asian Cup tournaments, and finished in fourth place, their best performance to date, during their maiden appearance in 1980.
However, unlike their Southern neighbor, North Korea often struggles to have the best performances, due to poor quality of the national team and their squad, as well as outside sanctions on the nation for its repressive nature. North Korea, after their 1980 appearance, would have to wait for 12 years for their next qualification, and they made further tournament appearances in the 2011, 2015 and 2019 editions. North Korea has not won an Asian Cup match since 1980, a drought of nearly 40 years.
See main article: 1980 AFC Asian Cup.
| Team | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 4 | +8 | 6 | |||
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 | |||
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 5 | |||
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 3 | |||
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 17 | −15 | 0 |
------------
See main article: 1992 AFC Asian Cup.
| Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | ||
| 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | ||
| 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | +1 | ||
| 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 |
--------
See main article: 2011 AFC Asian Cup.
See main article: 2011 AFC Asian Cup Group D.
| Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 9 | |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 6 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 1 |
| width=35% | width=15% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 January 2011 | ||||
| 0–0 | ||||
| 15 January 2011 | ||||
| 1–0 | ||||
| 19 January 2011 | ||||
| 1–0[1] |
See main article: 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
See main article: 2015 AFC Asian Cup Group B.
| width=25% | width=10% | width=25% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 January 2015 | |||||
| Stadium Australia, Sydney | |||||
| 14 January 2015 | |||||
| AAMI Park, Melbourne | |||||
| 18 January 2015 | |||||
| Canberra Stadium, Canberra |
See main article: 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
See main article: 2019 AFC Asian Cup Group E.
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| AFC Asian Cup record | Qualification record | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=150 | Year | Result | Position | |||||||||||||
 1956 | Not an AFC member | Not an AFC member | ||||||||||||||
 1960 | ||||||||||||||||
 1964 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1968 | ||||||||||||||||
 1972 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1976 | Withdrew after qualifying | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | |||||||||
| 1980 | Fourth place | 4th | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | ||
| 1984 | Did not enter | Did not enter | ||||||||||||||
 1988 | Did not qualify | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |||||||||
 1992 | Group stage | 8th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| 1996 | Did not enter | Did not enter | ||||||||||||||
 2000 | Did not qualify | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 7 | |||||||||
 2004 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 15 | ||||||||||
| Banned | Banned | |||||||||||||||
| 2011 | Group stage | 12th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Qualified as 2010 AFC Challenge Cup winners | |||||||
 2015 | Group stage | 14th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 7 | Qualified as 2012 AFC Challenge Cup winners | |||||||
| 2019 | Group stage | 24th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 18 | ||
| 2023 | Withdrew[3] | Withdrew during qualifying | ||||||||||||||
| 2027 | Qualified | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 7 | |||||||||
| Total | Fourth place | 6/19 | 18 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 15 | 40 | 51 | 26 | 11 | 14 | 76 | 55 | ||