The Malaysian side ensured they progressed to the super fours round of the tournament with a superb display at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium.

Goals in the space of two first-half minutes from Faizal Saari and Azri Hassan were enough for Malaysia to overcome the South Koreans, who remain second in the pool.

Lee Seung-hoon reduced the deficit for South Korea with a 37th-minute effort but Malaysia held on for their second successive victory at the event.

"We are happy with the win but I would have liked to see our team score more goals," Malaysian coach Stephen van Huizen said.

"Both our goals today came off penalty corners and while we want to continue to improve on our penalty corners, scoring field goals too remains a priority for us and we will use the Oman game to test the areas we want to improve ahead of the super fours."

In the other match in the Pool, China defeated Oman by the same scoreline to keep their chances of qualifying for the next round alive.

France became the latest team to qualify for the men's Hockey World Cup as New Zealand's 19-0 thrashing of Papua New Guinea at the Oceania Cup in Sydney guaranteed the European nation's place.

New Zealand were in rampant form as they set up a meeting with arch-rivals Australia in the final tomorrow.

A World Cup berth was on offer to winner of the tournament at the Sydney Olympic Park but Australia and New Zealand have already qualified.

Papua New Guinea were the only team who could book their ticket to Bhubaneswar through the Oceania route but their crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand ended their faint hopes.

The women's final at the Oceania Cup is also due to be between Australia and New Zealand.

The two sides played out a dress rehearsal of the final today, with Australia earning a narrow 2-1 win.