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Updated July 19th, 2021 at 11:13 IST

North Korean defector Choi Hyun Mi finds pro boxing success in South Korea

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

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

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

Nearly two decades after 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 No. 1 in the women's pound-for-pound rankings.

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.

What the undefeated WBA champion has already achieved makes her a great ambassador for North Korean defectors in South 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 left North Korea because her father Choi Yeong-chun, who had worked overseas as a state-run trading company employee, 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 after 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.

She became a member of South Korea's national team in 2006 before turning pro and clinching the World Boxing Association's vacant featherweight crown in 2008.

After defending the title seven times, Choi jumped up a weight division and added the WBA super featherweight title to her collection in 2014. She's defended that title eight times.

But the sport's declining popularity in South Korea left Choi with a lack of sponsorships, to the point where she even considered surrendering her title.

Agents from the United States, Japan and Germany have made approaches about Choi being naturalized in those countries.

But the 30-year-old boxer said she's rejected the offers for two reasons: worries about another tough resettlement, and the immense pride that she's had representing South Korea.

Now with an American boxing agency, Choi trains mostly in the United States, where she thinks she could become "an even greater boxer."

Choi isn't sure when her match with Harper can be rearranged, but she said within three to five years she aims to combine the WBA title with the three other major belts _ WBC, IBF and WBO _ in her division.

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Published July 19th, 2021 at 11:13 IST

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