Only an elbow injury sustained by super-heavyweight Li Wenwen denied them in their quest to win at the same five weights when Saudi Arabia hosted the 2023 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Riyadh last month.

And yet, three days into North Korea’s return to the platform after a four-year absence, the head coach of China’s women’s team announced that China was no longer the world number one.

"Now DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is ahead of us and we need to catch up," said Wang Guoxin at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

"The DPRK team at the Asian Games has delivered wonderful results… this is a healthy trend and we welcome it."

On the first two days of women’s events in Hangzhou, North Korea won four gold medals and set six world records, all of them previously held by lifters from China or Chinese Taipei.

Kuo Hsing-Chun, the 59 kilograms Olympic champion from Chinese Taipei, was in the crowd when Ri Song Gum claimed two world records at 49kg, the opening event in Hangzhou.

"When I saw it, I said it was just too scary," Kuo said. "They (North Korea) have been strong in the past for many years so it is not too surprising that they would have such results, but it is still pretty scary."

Kuo was speaking after losing one of her world records, the 59kg snatch, to Kim Il Gyong.

North Korea finished top of the medals table with six golds. Only one of their 14 Asian Games athletes, who finished fourth, failed to win a medal.

That was a remarkable performance on the platform. Something remarkable happened off the platform, too.

All but one of the 13 medallists sat down and spoke to the media at a press conference after they had performed.

Unusually, compared with previous sporadic appearances at press conferences, the North Koreans made far more mentions of their coaching team than they did of their Great Leader, Kim Jong Un.

Their statements and replies were formulaic, three of them said it was a pity that their medal was not gold and one champion was unhappy despite winning because she had not broken a world record.

But they added occasional snippets of information such as the age they began weightlifting, how they valued the support of their family, their respect for Chinese athletes, or how there had been "sweat and tears" during their four years of training while awaiting a return to international competition.

They almost all offered thanks to their coach, and stressed the togetherness of the team, all of whom were there at Xiaoshan Sports Centre Gymnasium to cheer every lift by a team-mate when they were not competing.

Most surprising of all, North Korea’s national head coach agreed to give an interview to shed a little light on why the world’s most secretive state is so good at weightlifting, in which it has won more Olympic medals than any other sport.

The interview did not last long in the period between the end of formalities after North Korea’s sixth gold medal and their bus journey back to the team’s hotel. At the outset it seemed that it would not happen at all.

Kim Chun Hui, who has been a coach for 20 years, is also the PRK Weightlifting Federation’s general secretary.

Judging by results, Kim is one of the world’s great coaches. North Korea has won five Olympic golds, and Kim was the personal coach of athletes who won three of them, Om Yun-chol in 2012 and Rim Jong-Sim in 2012 and 2016, according to team manager Song Nam Jang.

Kim became national head coach soon after London 2012, Jang said.

In all her years in the sport, Kim had clearly never dealt with the media; she was so nervous that she could not or would not speak.

Four times Jang, who had accompanied all the medallists at the press conferences, encouraged Kim to say something.

He had himself spoken about his country’s efforts to comply with strict anti-doping conditions to secure its future in the sport, and was aware that engaging with the media might help to change the weightlifting world’s view of North Korea.

Eventually, when faced with a very simple question about where all the weightlifters come from, Kim began to speak.

Kim, who believes she is the first female general secretary/head coach in the world, said that weightlifters started young.

"Weightlifting is a school sport," she said. "We get our athletes from schools and clubs.

"There is a lot of social interest in weightlifting in PRK. It is one of our main sports with strong support from the Government, and sponsors.

"We have 40 athletes in our national team, 20 men and 20 women, who train together at our national centre. We have other training centres too, and we have 25 clubs.

"We held our national youth championships recently, when we had 200 entries."

Rim Jong-sim is now retired and a mother. What about Om, one of the few men to have lifted three times his own body weight, who was not entered for Hangzhou?

"He is still with us, he coaches our juniors," said Kim.

"All our weightlifters are very proud of their sport, always trying to improve its status and improve themselves.

"When our athletes retire they will stay in the sport, become a coach. They give their life to weightlifting."

How did she explain the phenomenal results in Hangzhou?

"During COVID we worked for four years preparing our athletes only for one thing, to win gold. We all worked very hard.

"Now we are preparing for the upcoming IWF events and we hope to be in the Asian Championships next year."

That was about it before Kim dashed off to join her team-mates on the bus.

There were so many more questions to ask, but no time to ask them. Maybe next time…

For example what about the 73kg bronze medallist Oh Kumthaek, who said he started weightlifting aged 12 but who did not make his international debut until last week, aged 26.

Oh said he had "competed in a lot of national competitions" in that 14-year period, and Jang pointed out that national events in North Korea are "no less a standard" than many international ones.

What results are posted at national level? How many coaches are there, how many full-time lifters are living the sleep-eat-train regime?

More frivolously, is it true, or just a rumour, that Om Yun-chol was glorified in a pop song that became a big hit in North Korea?

What about Kim’s background as an athlete, and her mentors in coaching? Does she regard herself as the world’s leading female coach?

How did North Korea improve so much this century, after women’s weightlifting was added to the Olympic Games schedule?

In the last five Olympic Games of the 20^th century, North Korea won two silvers and three bronzes in men’s events: in five Games this century (they withdrew from Tokyo over COVID concerns) the tally is five golds, six silvers and two bronzes.

Nine of those 13 medals were won by women.

Many athletes, coaches and followers of weightlifting around the world suspect doping, coupled with lack of testing, played a role in those results.

Jang addressed the complaints, and confirmed that foreign testers were now welcome in his country, by saying: "Some countries misunderstand our anti-doping controls, it is an unfortunate situation.

"Our athletes are tested by our NADO [National Anti-Doping Agency].

"The testers arrive at any time, the athletes are tested without warning several times, blood and urine."

Jang, who translated for Kim, also responded to coach Wang’s comment that North Korea was now number one, saying that "we will always put China as our target" in future competitions.

"Every gold medal is payback for our hardship over four years," he said. "We are world leaders now. We wanted to show our strength and we did it.

"China's athletes are phenomenal. I think we will motivate each other to make progress."

Whenever he was questioned by an agency journalist Jang pointed out that North Korea, the widely used version outside his homeland - including on this website - was not the name of his country.

"It is DPRK, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," he said - a point also made by his Sports Minister in his talks last week.

IWF President Mohammed Jalood has been to competitions in North Korea twice, most recently for the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in 2019, when he was general secretary of the Asian Weightlifting Federation.

"Weightlifting in PRK is like football in Brazil," said Jalood, who was especially impressed by the record-breaking performance of Ri Song Gum in the women’s 49kg category.

"It is a special sport, all the people follow it, the Government gives it strong support.

"I was surprised to see the conditions for the athletes. Their accommodation was like a five-star hotel.

"They have a very special competition hall, very good training facilities.

"They have showed in Hangzhou how strong they are.

"Any medallist at the Asian Games is a potential medallist at the Olympic Games because the standards are so high.

"Remember, they qualified for Tokyo and could have won medals.

"But they must look beyond Paris 2024. PRK is not eligible."