North Korea won its first medals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday, securing gold, silver and bronze in weightlifting and soft tennis in the space of a few hours.

Nine days after the DPRK’s first event in this year’s Asian Games, weightlifter Ri Song Gum ended the country’s medal drought with a dominant performance in the women’s 49-kilogram category.

At the Nagoya City Trade and Industry Center, Ri won her third consecutive Asian Games gold medal after success in 2018 and 2023, becoming only the fourth weightlifter — and the first woman — to achieve the feat.

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