Korean handball players take part in a training session at Handball Stadium in Paris, July 22. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Korea edged out Germany 23-22 to start the women's handball tournament at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, brightening its hopes of reaching the knockout stage.

Korea overcame a four-goal deficit midway through the second half at South Paris Arena 6 and goalkeeper Park Sae-young made a couple of game-saving stops in the late seconds to preserve the narrow win.

Korea will next face Slovenia on Sunday, with Norway, Sweden and Denmark to follow.

There are two groups of six countries in the competition, and the top four teams after round-robin play will advance to the quarterfinals.

Korea has not won a women's handball medal since taking home bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Korea built an 11-8 lead with 5:48 left in the first half but did not score again until the intermission, with Germany fighting back to make it an 11-10 match going into the second half.

Korea's dry spell lasted another 5:20, though Germany failed to take advantage of the drought and only managed one goal during that span.

The teams then traded a few goals, before Germany jumped out to an 18-14 lead at 45:16 mark, following a Korean turnover.

But Korea regrouped to score three unanswered goals and cut the deficit to one at 18-17.

Korea went up 22-21 on a penalty shot by Woo Bitna, and Park took over the game from there.

First, Park denied Xenia Smits on a shot from six meters out with just under two minutes remaining. In the next German possession, Park turned aside a shot by Alina Grijseels to keep Korea up by one.

Kang Kyung-min then finished off Germany with a goal at 59:38 mark, with a penalty shot by Grijseels proving to be too little, too late for Germany.

Kang and Ryu Eun-hee shared the team lead with six goals apiece. Woo was a perfect 3-for-3 on her penalty shots. (Yonhap)