South Korea at the CONCACAF Gold Cup

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is North America's major tournament in senior men's football and determines the continental champion. Until 1989, the tournament was known as CONCACAF Championship.[1] It is currently held every two years.[2] From 1996 to 2005, nations from other confederations have regularly joined the tournament as invitees. In earlier editions, the continental championship was held in different countries, but since the inception of the Gold Cup in 1991, the United States are constant hosts or co-hosts.

Kim Nam-Il was voted into the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup Best XI, foreshadowing his stellar performance at South Korea's home World Cup later that year.

From 1973 to 1989, the tournament doubled as the confederation's World Cup qualification. CONCACAF's representative team at the FIFA Confederations Cup was decided by a play-off between the winners of the last two tournament editions in 2015 via the CONCACAF Cup, but was then discontinued along with the Confederations Cup.[3]

Since the inaugural tournament in 1963, the Gold Cup was held 25 times and has been won by seven different nations, most often by Mexico (11 titles).

South Korea are the only Asian team to ever participate in the North American continental championships and have done so twice: consecutively in 2000 and 2002. In seven matches, they failed to win a single one in regular time, but won Fourth Place in 2002 after advancing to the knockout stage with only one point to their name and defeating Mexico on penalties in the quarter-finals. Two years prior, they were eliminated after the group stage per coin toss. Canada advanced instead and eventually won the 2000 edition.