Rim edged out Romanian Roxana Daniela Cocos with a total weight of 261 kg, consigning Cocos to silver.
The field was tightly grouped after the first round of snatch lifts, with the top eight lifters separated by just 5 kg but Rim pulled away in the clean and jerk phase to win her country's third weightlifting gold.
Belarus's Maryna Shkermankova took the bronze medal.
FINAL TABLE (Snatch, Clean/Jerk, Overall)
1. Rim Jong Sim (North Korea) 115 146 261
2. Roxana Cocos (Romania) 113 143 256
3. Maryna Shkermankova (Belarus) 113 143 256
4. Dzina Sazanavets (Belarus) 115 141 256
5. Anna Nurmukhambetova (Kazakhstan) 115 136 251
6. Ubaldina Valoyes Cuesta(Colombia) 111 135 246
7. Huang Shih Hsu (Chinese Taipei) 110 131 241
8. Marie-Eve Beauchemin-Nadeau (Canada) 104 135 239
9. Esmat Ahmed (Egypt) 105 130 235
10. Ghada Hassine (Tunisia) 102 120 222
