The two Koreas will field a combined women's team at the table tennis world championships after the nations decided not to compete against each other in the quarter-finals, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced.
North and South Korea requested to field a unified team for the semi-finals of the championships, which will be played against Japan on Friday in Halmstad, Sweden.
The last time that a unified Korea team played the world table tennis championships was 1991 in Chiba, Japan, where the women's team shocked defending champions China to win the gold medal.
The decision to form a unified team was a tripartite agreement between the leaders North and South Korean Table Tennis teams and the ITTF.
Yes, we respect the rules. Yes, we changed them. But this here is bigger than the rules," ITTF president Thomas Weikert said.
"We discussed it together. We didn't sleep a lot. But in the end we got confirmation from all three parties [the two Koreas and ITTF]."
The move comes a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae In met and pledged to work for denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
