North Korea's Kim Song I is a major contender for honours in Pyongyang ©ITTF/Rémy Gros

North Korea’s representatives for this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are among the leading names set to compete on home soil at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pyongyang Open, due to begin tomorrow.

Kim Song I, Ri Mi Gyong and Ri Myong Sun and will continue their preparations for Rio 2016 at the five-day Challenge Series tournament in North Korea’s capital. 

Ri Myong Sun and Kim both reserved women’s singles places at Rio 2016 during the ITTF Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Hong Kong.

Victories over India’s Mouma Das and Indonesia’s Lilis Indriani respectively secured their berths, while Ri Mi Gyong gained one of the team quota places. 

Kim will be making her Olympic debut at Rio 2016 having represented her country at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. 

She is one of only two players from North Korea to have won an ITTF World Tour women’s singles title having emerged successful in the Swedish town of Helsingborg in 2012 - 11 years after compatriot Kim Hyon-hui had triumphed in Doha. 

Among those expected to challenge the North Korean trio in Pyongyang are defending champion Sun Chen and 2015 runner-up He Zhuojia, both of China.

Sun beat Kim and Ri Mi Gyong on her way to victory last year, while Ri Myong Sun fell to defeat against He.

Home favourite Ri Myong Sun will be looking to make her mark in Pyongyang ©Getty Images
Home favourite Ri Myong Sun will be looking to make her mark in Pyongyang ©Getty Images

Other names to look out for include Chinese teenagers Fan Siqi and Qian Tianyi, aged 18 and 16 respectively. 

In 2014, Fan won the girls' singles title at the ITTF World Junior Circuit tournaments in both Taicang and Chengdu and was runner-up in the women’s singles at the ITTF World Tour event in Argentina.

Qian won the girls' singles event at last year’s China Junior and Cadet Open. 

The 2015 edition of the ITTF Pyongyang Open marked the return of World Tour table tennis to North Korea for the first time in 36 years.

The last time an international table tennis event was held in the nation prior to that was the 1979 ITTF World Championships, also held in Pyongyang.

Last week, Pyongyang was awarded the 2018 Junior World Weightlifting Championships.

Awarding the 2018 event to the East Asian country marks a major move but the IWF is among organisations who think sporting events could help to "open up" the reclusive state.

The country, a dictatorship which is rarely visited by foreigners, has also been tipped to host the 2017 Junior World Judo Championships.