Pak Hyon Suk, Beijing Olympics women's weightlifting gold medalist, vowed to train harder to defend her title.

"Defending the champion is harder than grabbing it, so I have to make more efforts in the future," Choson Sinbo, a newspaper run by ethnic Koreans in Japan, quoted Pak as saying on Tuesday.

Pak won the first gold medal in women's 63 kg weightlifting at Beijing Olympics for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK), which was the first Olympic gold medal the DPRK athletes won in 12 years.

"I went for the competition with an ambition of winning good results for the 60th birthday of my country," Pak said. "I was happy to win the gold medal, but what made me more joyful was that I could finally report the victory to 'dear general' (Kim Jong Il)." 

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2008)