[2] Kim plays a highly defensive style with plenty of slice, occasionally injecting pace with top spin strokes from the forehand.

[4] She won the bronze medal for North Korea at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Kim was born on 10 August 1994 to a working-class family in Phyongchon District, Pyongyang.

[4] In 2012 in Helsingborg she won the Women's Singles title at the Swedish Open.

[6] In the third round, she surprisingly beat Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa, ranked number six in the world.,[7] In the quarter-finals, she went on to beat Singaporean Yu Mengyu, ranked 13th, with a score of 4-2 before losing to second-ranked Ding Ning in the semifinals with a score of 4–1.