Pak Yong-ok

Pak Yong-ok (* around 1956) is a North Korean table tennis player who became world champion in women's doubles in 1977 .

Career

She won several medals at the Asian Championships . Here she won gold twice, namely in 1976 with the team and in 1978 in doubles with Kim Chang-ae. She reached the final in women's doubles in 1972 with Cha Kyung-mi and 1980 with Hong Gil-soon as well as 1978 and 1980 in team competition.

In 1977 and 1979 she took part in the world championships . In 1977 she won the doubles title alongside the Chinese Yang Ying . In the team competition she was third in 1977 and second in 1979 .

On-site observers believed that the 1977 women's doubles title was a gift that the Chinese Chu Hsiang-Yun / Lijie Wie had deliberately lost the final. However, there is no evidence of this.

In early 1979 Pak Yong-ok was ranked 15th in the ITTF world rankings .

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
PRK	Asian Championship ATTU	1980	Calcutta	IND		silver		2
PRK	Asian Championship ATTU	1978	Kuala Lumpur	MAS		gold		2
PRK	Asian Championship ATTU	1976	Pyongyang	PRK	Quarter finals		Quarter finals	1
PRK	Asian Championship ATTU	1974	Yokohama	JPN	Quarter finals	Quarter finals
PRK	Asian Championship ATTU	1972	Beijing	CHN	Quarter finals	silver	Quarter finals
PRK	Asian Games	1974	Tehran	IRI	Semifinals
PRK	World Championship	1979	Pyongyang	PRK	last 32	last 16	Quarter finals	2
PRK	World Championship	1977	Birmingham	CLOSELY	last 32	gold	no participants	3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1977 she was 21 years old according to the magazine DTS , 1977/8 page 16
2. ↑ ITTF world rankings from 1947 to 2001 (Excel; 171 kB) (accessed on June 20, 2014)
3. ↑ Pak Yong-ok results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed June 20, 2014)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Pak is the family name here, Yong-ok is the first name.