Athletes from all over the world will look to make history as the 33rd Summer Olympics kick off in Paris this week, and the global multi-sport event will also see the return of a country that has not been on this stage for almost a decade — North Korea.

The DPRK has sent a 14-athlete contingent to this year’s Games, after skipping the last edition in Tokyo in 2021 due its self-imposed COVID-19 border controls.

But the country only returned to international sports in the second half of last year, and it will be without some of its brightest medal prospects at the upcoming games after its long absence.

A weightlifting powerhouse with 18 Olympic medals, including five golds, the country’s return came a little too late to make it eligible to qualify for the Games, despite its dominance in the sport over the past year.

North Korea’s strong women’s soccer team also failed to qualify for the Olympics after an all-or-nothing playoff against Japan, the only Asian country with a higher ranking.

Facing reported issues with funding and visas for qualifying events, North Korea appears set to skip the Paris Paralympic Games as well, in a major setback for the country’s fledgling disabled sports scene. 

Still, the DPRK’s delegation of mostly female athletes Summer Games harbors hopes of medals in other traditionally strong sports, such as wrestling and boxing, while it will dream of unprecedented success in other events like diving. 

Ahead of the start of the 2024 Olympics, NK News takes a look at the athletes hoping to bring glory to North Korea in Paris.

WRESTLING

After weightlifting, North Korea has historically enjoyed the most Olympic success in wrestling, with three gold medals and 10 overall.

The DPRK’s wrestling team in Paris comprises three athletes:

• Choe Hyo Gyong (women’s freestyle, 53kg)
• Pak Sol-gum (women’s freestyle, 68kg)
• Ri Se Ung (men’s Greco-Roman, 60kg) 

Choe, Pak and Ri earned their Olympic berths by finishing in the top two of their respective categories at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Kyrgyzstan in April.

Choe and Ri earning bronze showcased their abilities at last year’s Asian Games by earning bronze medals in China.

Nineteen-year-old Pak did not participate in that event, but made a strong start to her international career at April’s qualification tournament with three consecutive wins after losing her first bout.

The wrestling contingent initially also featured two others, Mun Hyon Gyong (women’s freestyle, 62kg) and Kim Son Hyang (women’s freestyle, 50kg), but the sport’s governing body United World Wrestling announced two weeks before the Olympics that North Korea had “surrendered its quota” in those events, without citing a reason.

The two withdrawn athletes were among North Korea’s top wrestlers at last year’s Asian Games, with Mun earning North Korea’s only wrestling gold medal and Kim winning one of the country’s three silver medals in the sport.

BOXING

North Korea’s first Olympic qualifiers came in boxing, with two women securing their berths at last year’s Asian Games.

Pang Chol Mi, competing in the women’s bantamweight (54kg) category, is one of North Korea’s stronger prospects at the upcoming Games.

A world champion in 2018 and bronze medalist the following year, before North Korea cut itself off from international sports, she made a triumphant return in Hangzhou with a gold medal and will hope to repeat her success at the Olympics.

The other North Korean boxer at the Paris Olympics, Won Un Gyong, secured her place with a silver medal in the women’s lightweight (60kg) category at the Asian Games.

Although she didn’t win the gold, the 2015 junior world champion demonstrated her quality en route to the Asian Games final, winning against top contenders, including defending champion Oh Yeon-ji from South Korea.

DIVING

In addition to chasing continued success in boxing and wrestling, the DPRK hopes to win its first Olympic medal in diving.

Kim Mi Rae and Jin Mi Jo already proved their ability to compete with the best in the world at the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar in February, where they won the silver medal in the women’s 10m synchronized platform event.

In a multi-event competition dominated by Chinese divers, the North Korean divers’ performance showcased their skills and earned them automatic qualification for the upcoming Olympics.

Kim will have another shot at glory in the women’s 10m platform individual event, securing her place at the Games after finishing fourth at the world championships.

Im Yong Myong is North Korea’s third diver at the upcoming Olympics after being allocated a vacant slot in the men’s 10m platform individual event to fill the total quota for the number of divers in individual events.

Im won a silver medal with Jin Mi Jo in the 10m platform mixed contest at February’s world championships, but the pair will not get a chance to repeat that success as the Olympics does not feature mixed diving events.

GYMNASTICS

Historically, gymnastics represents North Korea’s third-most successful sport at the Olympics with three gold medals, and this year it has one of Asia’s best medal prospects in 21-year-old An Chang Ok.

An was North Korea’s only double gold medalist at last year’s Asian Games with her triumphs in the vault and uneven bars categories and also won a bronze in the artistic gymnastics team event.

In the process, she became a national sporting icon as the first-ever North Korean to win two gymnastics golds at a single Asian Games and helped the DPRK finish with the third-best gymnastics record at the Hangzhou games.

An secured her Olympic spot in the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around event with a series of strong performances at the 2024 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series held between February and April, earning the top spot in the vault event.

An’s success in the vault, in particular, marks her out as one to watch in Paris, but the upcoming Olympics will prove a far greater test than regional contests as she faces off against contenders from gymnastics powerhouses like the U.S.

TABLE TENNIS

North Korea has tasted limited Olympic success in table tennis in the past, with one silver and three bronze medals, and will hope its three-person contingent can add to this tally in Paris.

Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong earned their places at the upcoming Games after winning all of their matches at the World Mixed Doubles Olympic Qualification in the Czech Republic in April.

Pyon Song Gyong will represent North Korea in the women’s singles event after receiving a reallocated slot as the top-ranked player in the East Asia region who had not already qualified.

However, North Korea’s three table tennis representatives, none of whom made it past the quarterfinals at the Asian Games, will find it harder in Paris than they did in qualifying tournaments that did not feature top players who had already secured their Olympic spots.

JUDO

North Korea’s sole judo representative at this year’s Olympics, Mun Song Hui, will look to add to the country’s tally of eight Olympic medals in the sport, including two golds.

Mun won silver in the women’s middleweight (70kg) category at last year’s Asian Games and later qualified for the Olympics after receiving a continental quota slot for Asia based on her ranking during the qualification period.

However, she received this slot because other Asian countries with higher-ranked athletes had already secured their places.

That said, her relatively low ranking of 37 in the Olympic qualifiers is perhaps a little misleading, as she missed the first half of the two-year qualification period due to North Korea’s border closures and thus had fewer opportunities to accumulate points.

ATHLETICS

North Korea has never won an Olympic medal in athletics, and its sole representative in the category at this year’s Games faces an uphill battle if he is to make history.

Han Il Ryong received a spot in the men’s marathon in May based on universality places assigned to countries with smaller delegations as part of efforts to increase diversity at the Olympics. 

The 24-year-old won the silver medal in the marathon at last year’s Asian Games and earlier this year set a new DPRK national record at the Wuxi Marathon in China with a time of 2:09:42.

However, this time falls outside the Olympics’ automatic qualification standard of 2:08:10 for the men’s marathon, and with a world ranking of 334 as of early July, Han still lags far behind the leading medal prospects in Paris.

Edited by Alannah Hill

Correction: Updated at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2024 to reflect the withdrawal of two North Korean wrestlers from the Olympics.