Since the dismissal of Park Hang-seo after Korea's bronze medal performance on home soil at the 2002 Asian Games, the Koreans have turned to Portuguese coach Humberto Coelho and Dutchmen Jo Bonfrere, Dick Advocaat and Pim Verbeek in an attempt to replicate the feats of Guus Hiddink's side at the 2002 World Cup with little success.

Following Verbeek's departure after a third-place finish at last year's Asian Cup, Huh returned for his third spell in charge of the team in December after leading K-League side Chunnam Dragons to back-to-back Korean FA Cup crowns.

Huh has made a number of changes to his team for their first test - a Group Three qualifier against Turkmenistan at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Wednesday - leaving out familiar faces like Lee Chun-soo and Ahn Jung-hwan as well as the suspended Lee Dong-gook, Kim Sang-sik and Lee Woon-jae.

The Korea coach has based his decision on the need to have players in his squad that are prepared both mentally and physically to represent their national team.

"Even if the players have good skills, I will not choose them if they are not mentally prepared," said Huh.

"Players who represent the national team should be ready mentally and physically."

One player who he is expecting a lot from is Manchester United's Park Ji-sung, who returns after missing much of the last year through injury.

"It is true that Park Ji-sung's role for the team will be crucial," he added.

"I expect a lot from him because he has good experiences and outstanding ability which will be a strong point of our team up front."

Huh's third reign with national team began with a disappointing 1-0 loss to Chile in a friendly in Seoul last Wednesday, but he does not want to read too deeply into that result ahead of the clash with Turkmenistan.

"The game against Turkmenistan is a competitive game unlike our match against Chile and we will have our with best players available," he said.

"We should also be able to address the problems that we had against Chile and fix them in time for this match."

Turkmenistan reached the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers with a 5-1 aggregate win against Cambodia in the first round and a 3-0 aggregate triumph over Hong Kong in the second round.

Wednesday's other Group Three clash sees Jordan hosting North Korea in Amman.

The Jordanians scraped through to the third round after overcoming Kyrgyzstan in a penalty shootout following a 2-2 aggregate draw in their first round fixture, but coach Nelo Vingada remains confident that his team can progress to the final round of the qualifiers.

"I believe that our chances of qualifying for the next stage are good," said the Portuguese.

"Of course South Korea are favourites to qualify from the group because they have a good history and solid professional players. But at the end of the day, qualification from the group will be decided on the field.

"There are no weak teams in the group because we are at nearly the same level as North Korea and Turkmenistan. But we have a good mixture of experience in the team and this will help us in the qualifiers."

He added: "Hopefully we will be one of the two teams to qualify from the group."

Meanwhile, North Korean star Ahn Yong-hak is hoping that the two Koreas can occupy the top two spots in the group and from there progress to the 2010 World Cup.

"Of course, it would be fantastic to qualify for the World Cup and it will be great if we can go to the World Cup together," said the midfielder, who plays for Suwon Bluewings in South Korea.

"I want to try my best and have a good game," added Ahn of Wednesday's contest in Jordan.

"We don't have much time for training but all the national team players know each other well so we can adapt quickly and get a good result."

The North Koreans reached the third round by defeating Mongolia 9-2 on aggregate in the first round before receiving a bye in the second round.