Paul Coffa, the first coach ever to be inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Hall of Fame, said the news was "a catastrophe" that makes the anti-doping agencies and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “a laughing stock”.

"It makes me so angry, because it’s completely unfair on athletes, just plain wrong," said the Australian, whose athletes have won more than 100 medals in major championships since he began coaching in the 1960s.

"If this is not stopped I will consider taking a case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport about the unfairness of it."

Canada’s Olympic champion Maude Charron, speaking as an individual rather than in her role as a member of the IWF Athletes Commission - which is yet to discuss North Korea’s return - is also unhappy with the situation.

"There’s unfairness everywhere and sadly, this doesn’t look good for 2028," said Charron, referring to weightlifting’s attempt to return to favour within the IOC.

"I hope the IWF Anti-Doping Commission will make the necessary effort to ensure equity.

"Even with the slight improvement weightlifting has made in the last year regarding anti-doping, I still don’t think I compete with just clean athletes when I compete outside of Canada.

"That’s unfortunate and sad but it doesn’t stop me from pushing harder."

Another complaint about the lack of a level playing field came from Matt Sicchio, chief executive of USA Weightlifting.

Several American athletes, most notably their top women, suddenly have a more difficult challenge because of the return of North Korean lifters who have not competed or been tested since 2019.

"This latest information about North Korean athletes competing at the Grand Prix is very concerning and has us questioning whether that platform will truly be clean," Sicchio said.

"Our athletes, and others from around the world, are subject to robust in and out of competition drug testing.

"If it’s true that the North Korean athletes haven’t been subject to an equivalent level of testing since 2019, how can the IWF ensure this critical Olympic qualifier is being contested on a level playing field?

"Looking to Paris 2024 and our push to be on the Olympic programme for LA 2028, as an international weightlifting community we cannot backslide on our commitment to clean sport."

While most of the world’s top weightlifters trying to qualify for Paris have been tested 10 times or more since the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games finished in August 2021, and have had to log their whereabouts - down to every detail such as visiting a coffee bar - since August last year, the North Koreans have had a free ride.

The International Testing Agency (ITA), which carries out all anti-doping procedures for the IWF, has confirmed that not one of the 14 athletes who begin their qualifying effort in Cuba next month has been tested since 2019, and unlike all others they can be tested only during a competition rather than in training – a situation that will not change before the end of this year.

"If the IWF and the IOC allow them to compete it will make them a laughing stock, along with the rules and regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the ITA and all other doping control agencies," said Coffa.

"If you are a coach in weightlifting, which I have been for 58 years, you know very well that if you take performance-enhancing drugs for three or four years, and if you stop a year or even six months before the Olympics or World Championships and you keep training, all the strength you gained while you were doped up to the eyeballs still remains with you.

"You have lifters around the world getting tested every month, some of them every couple of weeks - that is urine and blood - and they need to keep their whereabouts details up to date.

"And here we have North Koreans not tested for three or four years and they are going to compete in Cuba. Are we joking? This is the biggest bull**** of the century.

"I would urge every country to write to the IWF and their National Olympic Committees to stop this."

Coffa is general secretary of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation, whose 22 members have not had a single doping violation in 16 years.

The North Koreans sometimes go long periods without entering competitions, and have been subject to so little out-of-competition testing that their doping statistics are not reliably comparable to any other nation.

Of all positive samples that have led to athletes being suspended since December 2019, when North Koreans last competed, about three-quarters came from out-of-competition tests.

Three North Koreans were disqualified from the 2015 IWF World Championships for doping, including the London 2012 gold medallist Kim Un Guk - and three others were banned between August 2014 and April 2015.

Despite Oceania’s clean record, weightlifters in Samoa, Australia and New Zealand have been tested many times since Tokyo and one of them, Don Opeloge from Samoa, was once tested five times in a three-month period.

"Our World Championships medallist in Australia, Eileen Cikamatana, was tested very late at night a couple of years ago on the day before a competition, and she got to bed at 1.30am," said Coffa.

"The next morning she competed in Canberra and was tested again. When she goes for a cup of coffee she has to amend her whereabouts details for the testers knowing that if she doesn’t, she faces the risk of being banned.

"The ITA sends a company from Germany here to carry out tests in a region with no positives in 16 years, and yet it can’t send anybody to North Korea, can’t test a single one of their weightlifters.

"This is a disgrace, the worst thing that has happened in weightlifting for 20 or 30 years.

"Can you imagine if the Pacific lifters would be in the same situation as the North Koreans. Who on earth would be able to beat them?

"Yet here we are 16 years of no doping in the Oceania region, doing the right thing for the sport and North Korea is allowed to compete without having been controlled for doping in three to four years.

"I don’t mind if North Korea has table tennis players at the Olympics, even gymnasts, but in a sport that requires strength then everyone should be subjected to the same strict scrutiny."

Change is on the way, but not in time for Paris qualifying. 

The IWF Board agreed in principle last October, and formally in January, to exclude countries where "it is not possible to conduct free anti-doping controls."

"All countries with blocked borders will be out, not just from qualifying competitions for Paris but from any international event," said Antonio Urso, the IWF director general, last October.

Urso described the Board’s decision as "a historical change of direction in our fight against doping" - but the ITA said that because of financial and operational challenges it cannot be applied until January 1 next year.