North Korean weightlifter Park Myung-jin wins gold medal, ranks 9th overall in Asian Games

(Nagoya = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeon Myung-hoon = North Korea, which participated in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, won gold medals for the second day in a row in weightlifting, a 'heroic event'.

Park Myeong-jin (23), a member of the North Korean weightlifting team, won the men's 65kg weightlifting competition held at the Nagoya Small and Medium Business Promotion Center on the 24th by lifting a total of 328kg, beating China's He Yuezhi (327kg) by 1kg.

Park Myung-jin, who weighed only 146kg in the snatch and was 6kg behind Heo Wezi (152kg), achieved a remarkable turnaround by succeeding at 182kg in the third and final clean and jerk.

On the other hand, Heo Weji only succeeded in lifting 175kg in the first clear and jerk, but failed in the second and third rounds, giving up the gold medal to Park Myung-jin.

In the men's 60kg weightlifting competition held at the same stadium earlier, North Korea added a silver medal thanks to Bang Eun-cheol's performance.

North Korea showed off its status as a weightlifting powerhouse by sweeping three gold medals and one silver medal in four specific weightlifting events held over two days.

In the stands, a cheering squad of Koreans living in Japan gave strength to the athletes.

They wore red group T-shirts, waved the North Korean flag, and chanted "Victory Joseon!" with the names of the players. They shouted slogans such as:

North Korea's gymnastics star Ahn Chang-ok also won a silver medal in the vault finals held at the Nagoya Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture on this day, receiving an average of 13.666 points in the first and second rounds. The gold medal in this event was won by Korea's Yeo Seo-jeong (average score of 14.483).

North Korea added one gold medal and two silver medals on this day, ranking 9th in the intermediate overall ranking with 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 3 bronze medals.