DAEJEON, South Korea, July 17 -- A unified table tennis team of South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) won its first victory in the preliminary of an international table tennis event hosted by the South Korean side.

The Seamaster 2018 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Platinum Korea Open kicked off its six-day competition Tuesday at South Korea's central city of Daejeon, some 160 km south of the capital Seoul.

It brought together about 230 players from 27 countries and regions, including the DPRK that sent 16 players and nine officials for the first time in history.

It marked the first time that Pyongyang dispatched players to a South Korea-hosted international table tennis event. The DPRK's table tennis players participated in the Asian Games hosted by South Korea in 2002 and 2017, respectively.

For the ITTF Korea Open, South Korea and the DPRK formed four unified doubles pairs: South Korea's Lee Sangsu and the DPRK's Pak Sinhyok for men's doubles; South Korea's Suh Hyowon and the DPRK's Kim Song I for women's doubles; South Korea's Jang Woojin and the DPRK's Cha Hyo Sim for mixed doubles; the DPRK's Choe Il and South Korea's Yoo Eunchong for mixed doubles.

Choe and Yoo won the first victory of the united Korea team, defeating Alvaro Robles and Galia Dvorak of Spain 3-2 at Hanbat Gymnasium in the central city. With the victory, they advanced to the round of 16.

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