North Korea Just Dominated the World Weightlifting Championship and No One Knows How

At the International Weightlifting Federation's World Weightlifting Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a surprise winner emerged atop yesterday's final medal tally. A team of six men and six women from North Korea managed to grab 12 gold medals and 21 overall—the biggest athletic success the politically isolated country has seen in any sport in its history.

In doing so, the North Koreans also pushed weightlifting giants China to second place—the last time China failed to finish first on the medal table in a World Weightlifting Championship was 13 years ago. "There was a time when China was the strongest in weightlifting, but not anymore," said North Korea's 20-year-old Ryo Un-hui, the women's 69 kg gold medal winner, "that's in the past."

But the most fascinating part of North Korea's success story is that no one knows how they pulled it off. Even when you prod the medal winners and record setters during international events—the only time one can have access to them—the most you'll get out of them is their reverence for North Korean dictators both past and present.

When Om Yun-chol, a 56 kg category weightlifter, victorious again last week at Kazakhstan, was asked during the 2012 London Olympics how he managed to lift three times his body-weight to win the gold, he said: "I believe that the great Kim Jong-il looked over me." From his grave.

Six weeks earlier at the 2014 Asian Games, Yun-chol again won gold and set a world record in the clean and jerk, lifting 170 kilograms. This time, when the reporters pressed him for his training methods, he asked them a question: "Have you ever heard that an egg can break a stone?" Yun-chol said. "The respected marshal [Kim Jong-un] has told us that if we add an idea to an egg … we can break the stone with that egg."

Presumably, that's the state-approved explanation for how a 5'0" man is capable of lifting 170 kilograms over his head not just once, but at three of the world's most prestigious and competitive weightlifting events.

"They have always had one or two good lifters over the years but never a whole team like this," Lyn Jones, a former lifter and now Australia's coach, told the Guardian. "It's quite remarkable, and the thing is nobody really knows how they have achieved it. Virtually nobody goes there, and they haven't used foreign coaches. Even China did that years ago."

The ruling family in North Korea has always been big on sports. One urban legend widely reported by North Korea's not-so-independent media is that Kim Jong-il scored a 38-under par golf round. And after his death, his son Jong-un, a Manchester United fanboy, has been at the heart of a statewide drive to turn the country into a sporting powerhouse. He celebrated his thirty-first birthday by flying in seven former NBA players and watching them play in his honor while he cracked jokes with former NBA star Dennis Rodman. And he doesn't believe in keeping the treats to himself. Apparently, medal-winning athletes are treated to lavish receptions with the country's most powerful officials upon returning from international competition. The story coming out of North Korea is that medal-winners are given luxury apartments and Mercedes Benz sedans.

But the weightlifters say those incentives were never on their mind. Their motivation is about as clear as anything else in North Korea—a country that has been investigated multiple times for punishing athletes who have failed to perform on the international stage.

"When we train, we just focus on how pleased Great Leader Kim Jong-un will be when he hears good news from our team."