North Korean defector Choi eyes medal for South Korea

SEOUL: As a child in an authoritarian, socialist country, Choi Hyunmi’s athletic talent was spoted early and her progress accelerated by a coach keen to impress the leader of North Korea.

Ater packing the gloves away when her family defected to the South, it was boxing that helped her two years later ater she faced discrimination.

Nearly two decades ater fleeing North Korea as a 13-year-old girl, Choi is South Korea’s only boxing world champion.

She harbors ambitions to unify her super featherweight division and to move up a weight to challenge Irish legend Katie Taylor, who is one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the women’s ranks.

Choi’s big push got off to a rocky start, when her planned unification bout with WBC title-holder Terri Harper in May was cancelled because of the British boxer’s hand injury.

Still, what the undefeated WBA champion has already achieved makes her a great ambassador for North Korean defectors in South Korea.

“What I wish now is leting the world know there is Choi Hyunmi in Republic of Korea,” Choi said in an interview referring to South Korea’s official name.

“I might have got some basic mental (toughness) in North Korea, but what has made me who I’m today is Republic of Korea.”

Choi began boxing at 11 when she lived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. She said a school coach noticed her athletic ability and told her parents that she could become a boxer who “can delight General Kim Jong Il,” the late father of current leader Kim Jong Un. She later joined an elite youth boxing program preparing for future Olympics.

But in late 2003, her family let North Korea because her father Choi Yeong-chun, who had worked for a state-run trading company, wanted a different life for his children. They moved to South Korea via Vietnam, only to face poverty and discrimination like many other defectors whose qualifications in North Korea largely aren’t recognized in the South.

Choi went back to boxing ater a classmate insulted her North Korea background following an accidental collision at school.

“She cursed me, telling me ‘You should have stayed in North Korea. Why did you come here and bump into me?‘” Choi said. “It deeply hurt me. I couldn’t show my temper because I was hurt too much ... I just stood helplessly and I didn’t go to school for a week.”