Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005 | 7:27 a.m.
Yvonne Caples
Age: 33
Birthplace: Pune, India
Size: 5 feet, 4 inches; 108 pounds
Junior flyweight record: 7-10-2
Briefly: Caples' parents, Buddy and Rekha, moved when she was a baby from India to Kansas. She discovered boxing as a student in Berkeley, Calif., and moved to Las Vegas in 2002 to hone those talents.
The decades-old, Russian-made aircraft spewed dark smoke outside and an archaic, twangy tune inside as it descended into Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, that late June night.
Yvonne Caples, an English teacher at Silverado High who moved to Las Vegas three years ago to pursue a boxing career, did not believe her eyes.
Fog condensation marred the view from her window seat, but she still saw clearly that there were no lights illuminating the wide streets of Pyongyang.
"Strange," she said. "We flew in in complete darkness. There were no lights at the airport and not that many people. It was pitch black. I thought, 'Oh, where am I? What am I doing? Why am I here?' "
A few days later, Caples, a junior flyweight, stepped into a ring -- in a packed arena holding 13,000 rabid fans -- against Eun Soon Choi. Before the fight, the crowd was silent during both national anthems.
Afterward, South Korean boxers told Caples it was the first time the Star Spangled Banner was played in Pyongyang.
"When I went in there with all those people there, I was very scared," Caples said. "It became not about fighting this girl, but about being in this arena with 13,000 people who have basically been taught to hate Americans.
"But they weren't disrespectful. They didn't boo. They've been trained that they can only say or do certain things. But, at the end, the applause was definitely subdued."
Caples, 33, went to North Korea, the world's most isolated society and home of the last remaining Stalinist leader, to continue a boxing odyssey that has led her to Germany, Japan, Guam and Trinidad and Tobago.
A March 2003 defeat to In-Young Lee in Seoul, South Korea, led to officials in that country to contact Caples' trainer, Leroy Caldwell, in mid-May about a goodwill trip to North Korea.
Before the trip, Caples and her group traveled to San Francisco to obtain visas from the Chinese embassy. Over two days, their journey took them from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, South Korea and then Beijing.
In Beijing, the Americans connected with contingents from Mexico, Japan and South Korea for a Korya Air flight to Pyongyang. Everyone was handed a visa when it landed, which they returned upon departure from Sunan.
"So you had no evidence of being there," Caples said.
One fighter from each of those foreign countries battled one from North Korea. To nobody's surprise, the hosts went 4-0.
Caples earned $6,000 in her 10-round unanimous decision defeat, dropping her to 7-9-2. But she said she and Caldwell figured a victory would be impossible unless Caples could knock out Eun Soon Choi, who had a record of 2-0.
After the fight, a male interpreter asked her, "What happened? You won that fight?"
"I said, 'Well, I can't win a decision here,' " Caples said. "He seemed sad, but I don't think he let himself dwell on it for too long. He's no fool."
The contrast between high-tech South Korea and its neighbor to the north, where even private vehicles are scarce, could not have been more stark to Caples.
"And the way people dressed, there were very few styles of clothing and hardly any color," Caples said. "Everything was gray or black, with the exception of an occasional piece of propoganda. Everyone wears little (photographs) of the 'Dear Leader' on their clothes."
That's Kim Jong Il, who inherited the reins of the dictatorship from his father, Kim Il Sung. Known as the "Great Leader," Kim Il Sung was installed by the Soviets as North Korea's head of state in 1945.
By the time of his death in 1994, he had reportedly erected more than 34,000 monuments to himself in North Korea. Caples is now a rare American who has seen some of them, such as the Mangyongdae Children's Palace.
"Where the children go after school to learn, play musical instruments, dance or take part in sports," Caples said. "All the children performed for us."
The Arch of Triumph, 10 feet taller than the original in Paris, sits on Kaeson Street. The Juche Tower is 500 feet tall, with three 100-foot statues below it. The Native House of Kim Il Sung, with its straw-thatched roof and mud walls, shows the Great Leader's humble roots.
City tours were precise.
"It's very guarded," Caples said. "You see what they want you to see. They keep Pyongyang very pristine and clean, and that's what visitors see. You sense you're only seeing certain things. Wow, just amazing."
At 7 every morning, loudspeakers on the streets blared a song that translates as "10 million Human Bombs for Kim Il Sung."
Caples and her husband could tell that their male interpreter was a tad more honest than his female counterpart.
"He basically said, 'Just don't ask too much when you're here,' " Caples said.
The female interpreter had her own agenda. She worked at a Pyongyang sports library, and when she borrowed a USA boxing manual from Caples, she did not return it.
"My husband had to say, 'She wants her book back,' " Caples said forcefully. "She's like, 'Uh huh,' like she didn't understand. But she spoke perfect English. I said, 'Let her keep it.' I didn't want to make a big scene.
"It was nothing special, and I can order another one. I was careful not to take anything over there I didn't want to lose."
A highlight of the exotic excursion was a meal of mul naengmyen -- cold buckwheat flour noodles in broth that towers out of a large bowl like a mountain rising from the sea.
It is topped by cucumbers, slices of beef, a hard-boiled egg and a Korean pear, and South Koreans consider it a delicacy.
"It was excellent," Caples said. "They fed us well, but I don't think I'd want to go back and fight. I experienced what I needed to there. I don't have a desire to go back."
Rob Miech can be reached at 259-4087 or at [email protected]
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