He won a gold medal in the men's light middleweight category at the 1988 Summer Olympics, being awarded victory over Roy Jones Jr. of the United States even though most observers considered that Jones had clearly won.

The result was widely condemned and led to reforms in the way boxing is scored at the Olympics.

Park's first major success came in 1985 when he won the light middleweight gold at the Boxing World Cup, defeating 1985 European Champion Michael Timm and 1984 US national champion Kevin Bryant.

[2] Several journalists made sworn statements that judge Hiouad Larbi of Morocco said after the match that he acknowledged that Jones had won easily, but chose to rule in favor of Park in order to placate the South Korean spectators.

He earned a bachelor's degree in physical education at Kyungnam University and served as a high school physical education teacher in Jinhae, Gyeongsangnam-do until 2001, when he was named an assistant coach of the South Korea national amateur boxing team.