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| World Taekwondo President Choue Chung-won and the demonstration team are all smiles at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, Tuesday. Courtesy of World Taekwondo |
By Jung Min-ho
PYONGYANG, North Korea ― A World Taekwondo (WT) delegation, led by its President Choue Chung-won, has arrived in Pyongyang with a message peace and unity.
At the invitation of the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF), a global organization with close links to North Korea, Choue and 48 other delegates arrived in the North Korean capital about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to promote peace through taekwondo ― a traditional Korean martial art that was born before the country's separation.
"Taekwondo comes from the same root," Choue, who has been leading the Seoul-based WT since 2004, told reporters. "Taekwondo can bind them closely together and play a key role in promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
"Many WT member countries and executives said they are proud of the fact that taekwondo played an important role in improving relations between South and North Koreas … I believe the sport will be remembered by many for its great contribution for peace."
During a five-day visit, the WT 22-member demonstration team will perform at Taekwondo Hall in Pyongyang on Wednesday. In two days, the WT and ITF teams will showcase their joint performance there.
It will be the first WT performance in North Korea since April, when its team performed at the same venue before the inter-Korean summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on April 27.
Choue and his ITF counterpart Ri Yong-son will discuss how to widen cooperation between the two organizations for the good of the sport.
"There will be many challenges and obstacles, but if we cooperate, we will be able to give a gift of a unified taekwondo to our people and the world," Ri told guests during a dinner at the Yanggakdo Hotel.
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| World Taekwondo President Choue Chung-won, right, and International Taekwondo Federation President Ri Yong-son greet each other during a welcome dinner at the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang, Tuesday. |
For a long time, the WT and ITF maintained that they were the only global taekwondo body and refused to recognize each other. But over the past few years, the two have strengthened their cooperation.
After signing a Protocol of Accord, in which the WT and the ITF agreed to cooperate for a better future for taekwondo, with the full endorsement of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in 2014, the two had their first joint performance at the 2015 World Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Two years later, the ITF sent a team to the WT World Taekwondo Championships in Muju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, and the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
The ITF was established in Seoul in 1966 by former South Korean army major general Choi Hong-hi, who later moved to Canada as a political exile. In the early 1980s, the ITF started to develop close relations with North Korea as it spread taekwondo to the world.
World taekwondo leaders later felt the need for another international body for the sport and set up the WT in 1973. Since then, it has grown into the official international governing body recognized by the IOC, with 209 national member associations.
The two organizations' principle rules are similar, but differ in some aspects. The WT and ITF chiefs are expected to discuss possible ways to narrow those differences.
"The WT and ITF have developed taekwondo in their own ways over the past 46 years," Choue said. "It will take some time to narrow their differences, but taekwondo has been one and it always will be."
