Kim Un Guk

Kim Un Guk (김은국) is a North Korean weightlifter, born in 1988 in Pyongyang, who won the gold medal in the men's 62 kg (featherweight) division at the 2012 London Olympics and set world records in the snatch and the total for his bodyweight category.^{1 • 2} Listed at 158 cm and 62 kg, he competed for the April 25 Sports Club and represented the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (PRK).¹

2012 Olympic gold

Competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the 23-year-old Kim won the men's 62 kg category in world record-breaking style. His 153 kg snatch equaled the world's best mark and broke the Olympic record, and his clean and jerk carried him to a new benchmark total of 327 kg.² The London organizers' official record of marks broken lists his 153 kg snatch and the 327 kg total, the latter flagged as both a world record and an Olympic record.⁶ He was not the first North Korean to win an Olympic gold medal in weightlifting, an achievement that had earlier belonged to Ri Hak-son at Barcelona 1992.^{3 • 11} North Korea claimed three gold medals at London 2012, of which Kim's was one.²

World Championships

Kim was a regular medalist at the World Championships in the 62 kg class across the first half of the 2010s.⁵

• 2010, Antalya: gold in the total and the snatch, silver in the clean & jerk.⁵
• 2011, Paris: silver in the total, gold in the snatch, bronze in the clean & jerk.⁵
• 2013: gold in the snatch, silver in the total, and bronze in the clean & jerk.^{5 • 12}
• 2014: gold in all three titles, snatch, clean & jerk, and total.⁵
• 2015, Houston: he arrived with 7 World Championship golds and 12 World Championship medals overall, won the snatch with 151 kg (missing 155 kg), and took silver in the total with 328 kg behind China's Chen Lijun at 333 kg.⁷

The IWF's competition report of the ninth of November 2014 described Kim's first sweep of all three golds at the World Championships, noting that he had won the world title in the total in the men's 62 kg in 2010 and taken silver in 2011 and 2013.^{8 • 12}

Asian Games and records

At the Asian Games Kim won silver in the featherweight 62 kg at the 2010 Guangzhou Games and gold in the same category at the 2014 Incheon Games.¹ The Incheon competition on 21 September 2014 was the peak of his record-setting. The official results book credits him with a 152 kg snatch, then a 154 kg snatch marked as world, Asian Games, and Asian record, and totals of 324 kg, 328 kg, and 332 kg, with the last two also marked as world, Asian Games, and Asian records; he finished ahead of Chen Lijun (321 kg) and Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia (308 kg).⁹

Guinness World Records lists the 154 kg lift as the heaviest weight lifted in the 62 kg snatch category, achieved in Incheon, South Korea, on 21 September 2014, and notes that Kim had previously shared the record at 153 kg until that attempt.⁴ Olympedia records that his snatch record of 154 kg stood until the end of the 62 kg category, which existed from 1998 to 2018, and that his total records of 327 kg (30 July 2012, London), 328 kg, and 332 kg (both 21 September 2014, Incheon) held until 22 November 2015.¹ A later international federation start book still listed the 154 kg snatch and 332 kg total as the senior men's world records for the 62 kg class.¹⁰

References

1. Kim Un-Guk, Olympedia
2. North Korea's Kim Un Guk wins 62kg weightlifting Olympic gold, BBC Sport
3. IPF magazine excerpt noting Kim's 2012 gold
4. Heaviest weightlifting 62 kg snatch (male), Guinness World Records
5. Un Guk Kim (Weightlifting): Prize list and results, The-Sports.org
6. London 2012 weightlifting records broken, LA84 Foundation digital archive
7. IWF World Weightlifting magazine, Houston coverage
8. World Weightlifting Championships 2014, Men's 62 kg, IWF
9. 2014 Asian Games weightlifting results book, Asian Weightlifting Federation
10. Senior men's world records start book, Polish Weightlifting Federation
11. Iwf120y 77 1980 Ho Bong Chol Initiates Dpr Koreas Success at the Games, iwf.sport
12. First Chinese Gold and Second for Prk, iwf.sport

Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Athletics, gymnastics, and strength sports › Weightlifters and weightlifting doping › East and Southeast Asian weightlifters

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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