DPRK sportspersons glorified the year 2024 with unprecedented successes.

Women footballers under 20 and 17 won four trophies at the Asian and World Cups, demonstrating the extent to which women’s football of the country has developed.

The Korean players scored 25 goals in total and lifted the trophy by winning seven matches in succession at the 2024 FIFA U20 Women's World Cup and won the trophy by displaying their amazing abilities from the beginning to the end at the 2024 FIFA U17 Women's World Cup.

Thus the DPRK's U20 women's football team became one of the three top teams which won the trophy three times in the history of the Women’s World Cup and its U17 women's football team a strong team as the first to lift the World Cup three times. Many football experts and media outlets of the world commented that the DPRK team beat all the odds-on favourites at the two Women's World Cups last year by completely smashing the theory of “European and American superiority in the football circle”, a deep-seated belief of football fans, and said that the brilliant successes should be attributed to the DPRK players’ spirit as well as their high physical and technical abilities.

DPRK table-tennis players also made remarkable successes.

Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, who had drawn little attention of experts and fans, advanced to the final match to take second place in the event of mixed doubles at the 33rd Olympic Games contrary to different predictions about odds-on favourites in the event.

They took second place in the same event of the 2024 Asian Table Tennis Championships and Ham Yu Song and Pyon Song Gyong third place in the event.

Kim Kum Yong beat her Chinese opponent 3-0 in the last sixteen, a player of the puppet ROK 3-1 in the quarterfinals and a Chinese Hong Kong player 3-0 in the semi-finals and advanced to the final match to defeat her Japanese opponent, who had been called a table-tennis genius, 3-1 and bag a gold medal.

What further surprised experts is that during the women’s team matches between the DPRK and Chinese teams, she won the match with her rival, who had topped the world rankings of women table tennis players, 3-1 by maintaining safe defence and mounting strong counterattacks without being in the least upset by the latter’s strong attacks. Media outlets of different countries lavished praise on her excellent performance, high mental qualities and defence and counterattack techniques.

DPRK weightlifters, who are dominant in the weightlifting event, won many gold medals last year, too.

They established new world and Asian records in different categories at the 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships and 11 men and women weightlifters all bagged gold medals. Thus, the women weightlifters came to hold 12 world records in total to top the rankings of countries.

In December, too, the weightlifters won gold medals in succession at the 2024 IWF World Championships after getting 38 medals, including 21 golds, at the 2024 IWF World Cup.

While competitively reporting the fact that the DPRK weightlifters broke world records in succession at the 2024 IWF World Championships, foreign media commented that the championships were becoming a stage of the show of the DPRK team.

DPRK Taekwon-Do players got 15 trophies and 76 gold medals at the 10th Asian Taekwon-Do Championships and a trophy and 19 medals, including 10 golds, in the adult event at the World Cup Taekwon-Do Games-2024 of the 9th International Martial Arts Games. Meanwhile, Jong Won Bom and Pak Su Jong bagged gold medals respectively in the adult events at the 15th WKU juvenile, youth, adult, veteran world championships and the 15th World Juvenile Cup games.

Judo players and wrestlers of the DPRK took two gold medals at the EJU Gyor European Open 2024, three golds in the men's 73kg and women's 52kg and 70kg categories in the 1st Judo Beton Hungarian Cup and two golds in the women's 53kg category and in the men’s 55kg category of Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2024 Asian Wrestling Championships.

Gymnasts won gold medals in the men's rings and the women's vaulting horse in the apparatus finals of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup 2024 held in Cairo, a gold in the women's vaulting horse in the apparatus finals of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup held in Germany, and won a diploma and a team cup by showing off unique and difficult technical skills at the 15th Senior Asian Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, leaving deep impression on the spectators and experts.

Other players got eight medals, namely seven golds and one silver, at the Eighth Children of Asia International Sports Games, and Son Su Rim won a gold at the 2024 IBA Youth World Boxing Championships.

Korean players also grabbed 29 medals, including eleven golds, in volleyball (men and women), boxing, swimming and shooting in the 1st CISM Pre-University Education Schools Tournament-2024 and 10 medals, including seven golds, in the 37th CISM World Military Wrestling Championships.

Other DPRK players bagged 12 medals in total, including six golds, five silvers and one bronze, at the First International Summer Sports Contest of University Students, "Youth on the Maritime Territory", and came first in the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Division II, Group 2.