North Korean table tennis players to arrive in Seoul on Sunday for int'l tournament

North Korean table tennis players will arrive in South Korea on Sunday for an international table tennis tournament, Seoul's sports officials said Friday, with the two sides looking to compete as a unified team in several events.

North Korea's 16 table tennis players and nine officials will land at South Korea's Incheon International Airport on Sunday via Beijing 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 Koreans will leave South Korea on July 23.

The Korean Open will feature men's and the women's singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles. North Korea will be led by Kim Song-i, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in the women's singles.

The North Korean squad also include women's players Cha Hyo-sim, Choe Hyon-hwa and Kim Nam-hae, who joined forces with South Koreans to form a unified team during the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad, Sweden, in May. Excluding Kim Song-i, most of the North Korean players are below the 100 spot in the world rankings, meaning their chances of a podium finish aren't high.

Since this will be the North's first appearance in an ITTF even in the South, the two Koreas are looking at ways to make the event memorable, and officials said they're pushing to form joint teams in both men's and women's doubles.

During the World Team Table Tennis Championship in Sweden in May, 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.

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, meaning Korean players will be less pressured to form joint teams in those two events.

"We'll discuss with North Koreans about joint teams as soon as they arrive in South Korea," an official at the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA) in Seoul said. "The women's side already experienced having one team at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Sweden, so there's a good chance." (Yonhap)