The two Koreas are forming a unified team at the women’s world table tennis championships. 

The Seoul-based Korea Table Tennis Association said on Thursday that the South Korean team and the North Korean team were initially scheduled to compete against each other in the quarterfinals at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad, Sweden, in the day. 

However, the association said they both advanced to the semis after agreeing to field a unified team. 

It will be the first time for table tennis players from the two Koreas to play in the same uniform since the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan. During that event, the unified Korean team won a gold medal. 

International Table Tennis Federation(ITTF) President Thomas Weikert was known to have proposed the two Koreas team up.  

The Korea Table Tennis Association is also seeking to form a unified team with the North at the Jakarta Asian Games slated for August and has called for cooperation from the sport’s world governing body.  

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