Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports of the DPRK

In the ITTF Asian Para Championships 2025 held in China in October, Kim Yong Rok, table tennis player of the Korea Sports Association of the Disabled, took the first place in the MS7.

Born in Chollima District, Nampho, he was good at studying and singing from his childhood.

At that time, he dreamed of becoming a soldier of the Korean People’s Army to defend the motherland.

However, at the age of 11, he lost his both hands and large parts of his arms in an accident. He was so dispirited that he gave up his dream and ideal.

But the disabled boy could study to his heart’s content receiving new uniforms and school things like normal children under the care of the socialist state.

One day when he was 20 years old, he happened to go to a stadium with the help of his caring friends and played table tennis for the first time, fixing a racket to his arm with an elastic band.

That day, he came to know that table tennis games for disabled persons like him and amateurs are held every year and thought that he could take up the sport.

As he eagerly started learning table tennis, his life changed. His face brightened and even his manner of walking got vigorous. Many table tennis amateurs gave bountiful aids to the disabled young man and his skills improved quickly day by day.

One year later, he took the first place in the men’s singles at the table tennis games of disabled persons and amateurs held in Nampho.

Thanks to the loving care of the socialist country, he became a table tennis player of the Korea Sports Association of the Disabled and could further realize his wish and display his talents.

Since 2016, he has triumphed in the table tennis games of disabled persons and amateurs every year. He snatched his first gold medal in the men’s doubles at the ITTF Asian Para Championships 2019.

He was awarded the Kim Il Sung Youth Honour Prize.

In those days, he cherished a precious dream and ideal that he would add honour to the motherland and exalt the DPRK flag by winning more gold medals in international games with his two handless arms.

To realize his beautiful dream and ideal, he trained harder and took the first places in men’s doubles (TT7) of the ITTF World Para Future Taipei 2025 and in men’s singles (TT7) of the ITTF World Para Challenger Kaohsiung 2025 and won a gold medal in the MS7 at the ITTF Asian Para Championships 2025 to bring pleasure to the motherland.

Today, he is exerting himself to return the favour shown by the motherland which translated his dream and ideal into reality.

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DPRK player Choe Il Son was awarded the AFC Youth Player of the Year (Women) at the AFC Awards Riyadh 2025 held in Saudi Arabia.

She was born as the eldest daughter of an ordinary family in Kwail County, South Hwanghae Province.

She began to learn the ABC of football in a soccer class of Sinsong Primary School in Kwail County when she was nine years old and cut a conspicuous figure in the football group of Kwail County Extracurricular Sports School.

She entered Pyongyang International Football School under the loving care of the Workers’ Party of Korea and further developed her talent while learning the basic techniques of football.

Choe was quick-witted and enthusiastic from her childhood, always taking the lead in the study.

Even now, her villagers recall that she was kicking a ball in a bag on her way to and from school and the instructor of Kwail County Extracurricular Sports School recollects her who opened her books and studied on the bus when they were going for itinerant training.

Choe became a football player of the April 25 Sports Team as she wished after graduating from Pyongyang International Football School and trained hard in the training ground, being fully aware that she should repay the country only with gold medals for bringing her up as an honourable sportswoman in its warm embrace.

Therefore, as she took part in the 2024 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup, she scored the thrilling opener in the semi-final with fast dribbling and a free kick and then responsibly provided other player with a chance for the second goal, thus greatly contributing to beating the rival team.

At the 2024 AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup, she also made a great contribution to the team's lifting the trophy with a decisive pass to Jon Il Chong for goal in the final.

In particular, at the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup finals she contributed to the team's victory with her excellent scores in the semi-final and final and won the Golden Ball, the best player award, and the Golden Boot, the top scorer award.

Choe, along with the members of the U-20 women's football team, was honoured to have a photo taken with the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un on September 30 last year and three months later, she had the greatest honour to meet him again with the U-17 women footballers.

Today, she is engrossed in training to attain greater successes, cherishing the love and trust of the respected General Secretary.

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Kim Yu Sim, a Taekwon-Do player of the Ryongaksan Taekwon-Do Team, is a world Taekwon-Do star.

Born in Sariwon City of North Hwanghae Province, Kim began to learn basic techniques of the martial art at the age of 11.

Two years later, Kim surprisingly won a medal in her national debut. Since then, she had cut a conspicuous figure in the national games every year.

She took the first place in the women’s 46kg-category individual sparring event of the 16-17-year-old group and won gold medals in the group pattern and team sparring events at the 12th World Junior and the 7th World Veteran Taekwon-Do Championships in 2016.

Bearing in mind the trust of the Workers’ Party of Korea which ensured Kim Il Sung Youth Honour Prize was awarded to her, she continued to do training with tireless efforts.

She unsparingly shed sweats of patriotism in training with a fervent desire to become a matchless, world-class Taekwon-Do player and make an active contribution to exalting the honour of the home of Taekwon-Do.

At the 22^nd Taekwon-Do World Championships held in 2023, she won the first place in individual pattern, sparring and power breaking events and took the leading places in group pattern and sparring events so as to contribute to the victory of the DPRK team. She bagged five gold medals and three belts awarded to champions in individual events and received the women’s individual technical prize of the adult category.

In 2024, she snatched seven gold medals in individual pattern, sparring and power breaking, group pattern and sparring and other events at the 10^th Asian Taekwon-Do Championships and, this year, she triumphed in individual pattern and sparring events of the adult category at the 23^rd Taekwon-Do World Championships again, exalting the dignity of the home of Taekwon-Do.

Now, she is training hard with patriotic enthusiasm to defend the honour of a world Taekwon-Do ace.

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There is a woman wrestler who became an Asian and world champion in succession this year among the sportspeople who are exalting the dignity and honour of the country by winning international games.

She is O Kyong Ryong of the Pyongyang Sports Club.

Born into an ordinary farmer’s family in Chimhyang-ri of Jongju City, she had an attachment to kayagum and studied music earnestly in her childhood.

But in her primary school days, the girl harboured an ambition to become a famous athlete.

In one lesson, her teacher gave a homework of making a composition about the national flag of the DPRK and told the students a story about some athletes who flew the national flag at international events.

Listening to the story, the girl wondered if she could also be such a successful athlete.

Thus, Kyong Ryong took up sports and trained in Jongju City. Later, she was chosen into the Pyongyang Sports Club and started her playing career under the guidance of Coach Choe Chol Su.

For over ten years, she trained hard and incessantly without feeling complacent even for a moment.

In those days, she chalked up four consecutive wins in national competitions to the surprise and excitement of professionals and fans. When her training was interrupted by an unexpected medical operation, she shed tears of distress for her ability was impeded.

However, she never gave up her hope.

O Kyong Ryong, who overcame all difficulties perseveringly, won gold medals at the Asian and world championships in one year, demonstrating the honour of the country to the whole world.

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Wang Myong Guk, a Taekwon-Do player of the Ryongaksan Taekwon-Do Team, is one of People’s Athletes of the DPRK.

Born as the eldest son of an ordinary working family in Nampho Municipality, he was fond of sports in his childhood under the influence of his parents who liked doing sports.

He learned basic football techniques at Taedu Primary School in Hanggu District, decided to learn Taekwon-Do as he finished primary school and joined the Taekwon-Do group of the then Hanggu Middle School in the district.

Here is a story about how much he loved Taekwon-Do.

One day three years after he started learning Taekwon-Do, his parents dissuaded him from practising Taekwon-Do, persuading him to make a changeover, as they felt compassion for their son who was very tired and severely bruised all over the body.

He earnestly said to them, grasping their hands:

“Taekwon-Do training is tough for me. But father, you told me that what you like to do is not difficult to do. I really like Taekwon-Do and I’ll keep doing it. I will become a Taekwon-Do ace who adds brilliance to our country.”

After hearing his determination, his parents actively helped him develop Taekwon-Do techniques.

He loved the national martial art so much and continued to hone his skills as he trained every day, rain or snow.

Later, he entered Central Sports School to further improve his Taekwon-Do techniques. He won gold medals in different domestic competitions and took first place respectively in the men’s 64kg category individual sparring and the men's team pattern of the 20th Taekwon-Do World Championships on his international debut.

Without resting on his laurels, he trained hard and won various international contests, thus powerfully demonstrating to the world the dignity of the homeland of Taekwon-Do.

In particular, he distinguished himself as a Taekwon-Do ace last year by winning four gold medals respectively at the Tenth Asian Taekwon-Do Championships and the Ninth International Martial Arts Games.

As he proudly brought gold medals to his motherland with boundless patriotic enthusiasm, Wang was honoured with the title of People’s Athlete under the loving care of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

He continues to devote all his wisdom and passion to adding lustre to the country with Taekwon-Do, the orthodox martial art of the Korean people.

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Probably everyone knows Kim Chun Hui, secretary general of the Weightlifting Association.

That much she is well known to the public as a successful coach.

She has remained the focus of interest and expectations of weightlifting experts and fans since she trained strong sisters who had attracted the attention of the world weightlifting circles.

During the whole period from when she worked as a coach at the Kigwancha Sports Club to when she worked as chief coach of the national women’s weightlifting team, she trained players with great efforts to demonstrate the country’s honour at the international events. Her trainees became Kim Il Sung Youth Honour Prize winners, Labour Heroes, People’s Athletes and Merited Athletes under the care of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Kim Chun Hui is the mother of two children and wife in a family.

But she works with a determination to repay the love and trust shown by the motherly Workers’ Party of Korea that put forward her, an ordinary coach, as a winner of Kim Jong Il Prize, Labour Hero and People’s Athlete.

With an ambition to lead the world, she has radically improved the level of national weightlifting tournaments and tried hard to develop new game tactics and new training means and methods.

A tireless enthusiast and earnest searcher, she is very demanding but considerate for the players and is so persevering and assiduous as to attain the goals she sets without fail.

In only three years after she was promoted to secretary general of the Weightlifting Association, she not only changed the country rankings in the world women’s weightlifting which had remained for decades but also lifted the country to the top in the holding of world records: its men and women weightlifters hold 17 world records in nine weight categories at present.

She often tells the players and coaches:

“We must win first place in all weight categories. Can we do it? Yes, we can and we have to do it without fail.”

To achieve this goal she continues to work hard with players and coaches in the training ground.

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A young weightlifter became the focus of attention of experts in the 58kg category of the girls’ weightlifting event of the 61^st national sports school contest held this year.

She is Kim Yon Mi, student of Tongdaewon District After-school Sports School.

She grew up under the care of her grandparents after losing her parents due to an unexpected accident at the age of two.

The benevolent socialist system took all sorts of measures to bring her beautiful dream and gift into full bloom, paying closer attention to the orphaned girl than other children under the care of their parents.

In her kindergarten days, she was good at study and had a liking for music.

One day, after watching the DPRK weightlifting ace Rim Jong Sim bag a gold medal at an international game on TV, Kim said to her grandmother that she wanted to become a weightlifter.

Much surprised, her grandmother turned down her request, saying she should study music.

Luckily, she came to have the favour of Ri Un Sim, weightlifting instructor of the sports school, who was busy travelling around to select children with an aptitude for weightlifting.

When Ri visited Kim’s house and suggested her grandparents send Kim to the sports school, they rejected her suggestion. But Yon Mi said: “I badly want to do weightlifting, instructor. Please teach me weightlifting.”

This is how she started to learn weightlifting and she trained hard out of a desire to get gold medals just like Rim Jong Sim.

Her heart was filled with the determination to return the favour shown by the benevolent country which took good care of her so that she could grow up without a slight shadow on her face, supplying her like all other schoolchildren with beautiful-coloured uniforms, schoolbags and other school things.

Even on rest days and public holidays when others took rest, she went to school to lift barbells. She made it a rule to find her faults revealed during her daily training and the ways to overcome them every night before going to bed.

Her great passion and strenuous efforts paid off. She got three gold medals by winning the girls’ 59kg category snatch, jerk and total at the 59^th national sports school contest.

Without resting on her laurels, she made redoubled efforts and snatched six golds last year by winning the 60^th national sports school contest and the junior weightlifting championships-2024 and three golds this year at the 61^st national sports school contest.

The weightlifting circles have great expectations for the future of Kim Yon Mi, who is growing up to be a weightlifting ace under the well-organized reserve athletes training system provided by the DPRK’s socialist education system.

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Ri Chong Song, weightlifter of the April 25 Combat Sports Team, is one of the sportspersons of the new generation who glorified the dignity of the country by achieving successes in international and national games including the Asian junior weightlifting competitions from his teens.

Born into an ordinary army officer’s family in Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang, he took up weightlifting when he was 13 years old. He began to learn the rudiments of weightlifting systematically at the then juvenile sports school of the Weightlifting Gymnasium on Chongchun Street.

As he had a good brain and wonderful sensation of movement, he quickly acquired technical movements as soon as he was taught about them. So he mastered the rudiments of weightlifting in a short time and won the national juvenile sports school weightlifting competition, to be selected by the then Ryomyong Sports Club.

He trained hard with determination to fly the national flag at the international games and won the men’s 62kg weightlifting event of the second Asian juvenile games.

Later, he finished runner-up in the men’s 81kg weightlifting jerk event of the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships. He set himself an ambitious goal to win a gold medal without fail in the next international event and trained harder.

As a result, he snatched 169kg (new record of the Asian Games) and jerked 195kg to win the men’s 81kg weightlifting category of the 19^th Asian Games with 364kg in total (new record of the Asian Games), thus demonstrating the dignity and honour of Juche Korea.

In the same spirit he bagged three gold medals in the same category of the 2023 IWF Grand Prix, and won nine gold medals at the international games including the 2024 IWF world championships the following year.

In March 2015, he was honoured to attend the Seventh National Conference of Sportspersons and have a photo taken with the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un. On January 2 this year, he had the honour again of having a photo taken with labour innovators and meritorious persons in the presence of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un at the office building of the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

He trains hard now to repay the loving care and benevolence of the Party which put him forward as a Merited Athlete and People’s Athlete.

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