The two Koreas agreed to form joint doubles teams at a table tennis competition south of the border, Seoul officials said Sunday, following North Koreans' arrival in South Korea.

North Koreas' 25-member squad, which includes 16 players, traveled to South Korea for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Platinum Korean Open, which will be staged in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, from next Tuesday to July 22. North Korea previously said it will send athletes to the Korean Open as well as the world shooting championship in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, in September.

Upon the North Korean table tennis squad's arrival, Seoul's Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA) said the two Koreas agreed to send unified teams in the men's, women's and mixed doubles events at the ITTF competition.


 

The KTTA said the South's Lee Sang-su and the North's Pak Shin-hyok will compete together in the men's doubles, while Seo Hyo-won will team up with Kim Song-i, who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in the women's singles for North Korea, in the women's doubles.

For mixed doubles, the Koreas will send two teams. The South's Jang Woo-jin will partner with the North's Cha Hyo-sim, while Yoo Eun-chong will compete together with North Korea's male athlete Choe Il.

This is the first time since May that the two Koreas decided to form a unified team in table tennis. During the World Team Table Tennis Championship in Sweden, the women's teams from the two Koreas joined forces before they were to square off in the quarterfinals. They got a bye to the semifinals, where they lost to Japan to take home the bronze medal.

Since this will be North Korea's first appearance in an ITTF competition in South Korea, the two Koreas have been looking at ways to make the event memorable, and officials have been pushing for joint teams.

For some players, the Korean Open serves as a tuneup event in their preparations for the Asian Games in Indonesia next month. The table tennis competitions at this year's Asian Games don't include men's and women's doubles, so the officials originally wanted to form joint teams in those two events at the Korean Open. But the KTTA said the ITTF also approved joint teams in mixed doubles, and the Koreas decided to send two teams in that event as well.

The KTTA said two Koreas will have joint training sessions on Monday to prepare for the competition. (Yonhap)