There, he opened his match by easily throwing Sweden's Torbjörn Kornbakk off the mat with a superb 11–0 verdict, but could not overthrow the defending champion Mnatsakan Iskandaryan of Russia in the next round, dropping him out of the winners' circle by a formidable 0–4 decision.

Entering the repechage stage, Kim avenged his defeat from Iskandaryan to tame the U.S. wrestler Gordy Morgan with a close 3–2 verdict, before he lost his subsequent bout to Bulgarian opponent Stoyan Stoyanov (5–0) that left him injured and frail at the very end.

Kim dominated the three-man prelim pool by subduing Azerbaijan's Khvicha Bichinashvili (3–2) and Turkey's Nazmi Avluca (3–1) to secure a spot for the next round.

He fell to his Finnish opponent and eventual bronze medalist Marko Yli-Hannuksela with a score 0–3 in the quarterfinals, but bounced back to forge a powerful 9–0 victory over Sweden's Ara Abrahamian for fifth place in a consolation match, a vast improvement from his previous Olympic feat.

[4] When his nation hosted the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, Kim capped off his sporting career with a golden triumph over Kazakhstan's Danil Khalimov by the delight of a massive home crowd in the men's 74 kg division, having been the last to score in a 3–3 draw.