The 30-year-old from Pyongyang took a step forward following his first vault -- a piked double front summersault with half twist -- and then stuck his tongue out bashfully when he failed to nail the second one cleanly.
But there was so much difficulty packed into his Tsukahara full-twisting double back effort, that the flawed landing did not effect his average score too much.
His score of 15.450 edged out Marian Dragulescu by 0.050 of a point -- the Romanian winning his 10th world medal 14 years after he won his first in 2001.
American Donnell Whittenburg, whose first vault was invented by and named after Dragulescu, picked up bronze with an average of 15.350.
Kim Hansol drew the loudest gasps of the final when he landed on his head following his first jump but the South Korean was wildly applauded as he got back on his feet to complete a second jump. He finished last in the eight-man field.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Toby Davis)
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