The North Koreans, who missed the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games when they withdrew because of COVID-19 concerns, have not competed internationally since 2019.

Athletes, coaches and federation officials around the world complained that their sudden arrival in Olympic qualifying in early June was unfair because they had not been subject to anti-doping testing in three and a half years.

The IWF Hall of Fame coach Paul Coffa, from Australia, described their acceptance in the Grand Prix entries as "the biggest bull**** of the century".

But North Korea effectively withdrew from the Olympic Games for a second time, in weightlifting at least, when they failed to turn up at a Grand Prix in Havana without offering any explanation. 

That was their last chance to join the qualifying system for Paris 2024.

Now they are back again in the updated entries for the World Championships in Riyadh from September 4 to 17, having entered a team of 16 - the 14 who were due to lift in Cuba plus two others.

The delayed Asian Games in Hangzhou, three weeks after the World Championships, is likely to be the main target of the year for North Korea, which topped the weightlifting medals table at the last Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018.

The North Korean men’s team for Riyadh includes a current world record holder in Pak Jong-ju, who is entered at 73 kilograms, but its women’s team looks stronger with at least four potential gold medallists.

Two of Iran’s Olympic champions are also out of Paris 2024 - Sohrab Moradi after his injury-enforced retirement and Kianoush Rostami because he has been dropped from the team.

Rostami, who has also been injured, failed to appear at recent national trials but was hoping for a reprieve because his effort at the IWF World Championships in Colombia last December placed him fifth in the Paris rankings at 89kg. 

Moradi and Rostami both won gold at Rio 2016.

Other absentees who are well placed in the rankings - and are therefore out of Paris 2024 contention because participation in Riyadh is mandatory - are Nurgissa Adiletuly, Alexey Churkin and Lyubov Kovalchuk from Kazakhstan, all provisionally suspended for doping offences.

All six of China’s eligible Olympic champions are, as expected, in the entries, two of them in the 61kg category.

China has three men at the top of list in this contest with an entry total of 310kg - the Tokyo 2020 67kg winner Chen Lijun, 61kg champion Li Fabin, and Ding Hongjie, who drops down from 67kg.

The maximum is two per category so one will probably go up to join He Yueji at 67kg.

Another intra-team head-to-head to savour will be between Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev and Ruslan Nurudinov at 109kg.

Eileen Cikamatana from Australia drops down from 87kg and has posted a big entry total of 268kg at 81kg, the same number as Sara Samir from Egypt.

Ri Song-gum could give an early indication of the strength of North Korea's women when she lifts at 49kg.

Six women have posted an entry total of 200kg or more at this weight, which features strong contenders from China, North Korea, India, Thailand, Romania and the United States.

The North Korea men’s team includes Pang Un-chol at 55kg; the 2019 Asian youth champion Pak Myong-jin, 20, and 2019 Asian junior champion Kim Chung-guk at 61kg; and debutant Ri Won Ju at 67kg.

At 73kg, North Korea relies on Pak Jong-ju, a former world junior champion who holds the 67kg clean and jerk world record of 188kg, and newcomer Oh Kum-thaek.

The other men in the team are Ri Chong-song at 81kg and Ro Kwang-ryol at 89kg.

In the women’s events Ri Song-gum, who had the highest entry total for the Havana GP, is entered at 49kg, while newcomer Ri Su Yon, 26, joins Kang Hyon-gyong at 55kg.

Rim Un-sim, who had memorable contests against China’s Deng Wei at 64kg, could win at that weight this time, after Deng’s retirement.

Kim Il-gyong goes at 59kg; Song Kuk-hyang and Ri Suk are entered at 71kg, where Song’s entry total is 260kg; and Jong Chun-hui, who first competed internationally in 2013 but is still only 25, is in at 76kg.

The total number of entries for the World Championships has dropped by more than 300 to 894.

Two other absentees are Croatians Goran Ćetković and Tia Sarah Tovarlaza, who have been provisionally suspended after testing positive for ostarine, the International Testing Agency (ITA) has announced.