Two Organisations

Chapter 3 ended with Choi Hong-hi leaving the Korea Taekwondo Association in 1966. This chapter follows what that produced: the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) on one side, and on the other a pair of South Korean institutions, the Kukkiwon and World Taekwondo. It sets out what each body does, what the sources say about the politics behind the split, and where the articles contradict each other. Since "taekwondo" in a news story, a club sign or an Olympic result can mean either family, this is the chapter that tells them apart.

The Three Bodies at a Glance

The Taekwondo article describes the split of function: "while the Kukkiwon focus on the martial art and self-defence aspects of Kukki-Taekwondo, the WT promoted the sportive side, and its competitions employ a subset of the techniques present in the Kukkiwon-style taekwondo". So "Olympic-style" or "WT-style" taekwondo is, in the article's words, "defined by the Kukkiwon, not the WT". The Kukkiwon article says that since 2010 it "has been officially recognized as a sports organization and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism", and that it works "in cooperation with World Taekwondo" on competitions. In May 1973 the KTA and the Kukkiwon hosted the first World Taekwondo Championships, "attended by 200 athletes from 17 countries".

How the Split Is Described

The articles give pieces of one story. They do not give a full account of the politics.

1. 1959–1966: an association, then a break. The Taekwondo article says the KTA was set up "to facilitate the unification" of the kwans, that Choi wanted his own Chang Hon style adopted by all, and that the other kwans "wanted a unified style to be created based on inputs from all the kwans". It gives as reasons for his 1966 break this resistance "along with political disagreements about teaching Taekwon-Do in North Korea and unifying the whole Korean Peninsula". The ITF article puts it differently: Choi "left the KTA due to international organizational politics".
2. Limited government support, then withdrawal. The Taekwondo article says the South Korean president "initially... gave Choi's ITF limited support, due to their personal relationship", but "Choi and the government later split on the issue of whether to accept North Korean influence on the martial art. In 1972, South Korea withdrew its support for the ITF". The ITF article says that in 1972, "following political disagreements with South Korean President Park Chung-hee, Choi went into exile to Toronto, Canada". The Choi article says he went into exile in Canada in 1972 "after the South Korean government refused to allow his organisation to teach taekwondo in North Korea".
3. 1972–1973: new institutions. The Taekwondo article says the KTA and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism "established the Kukkiwon as the new national academy for taekwondo" in 1972, and that in 1973 the KTA and Kukkiwon "supported the establishment of the World Taekwondo Federation". The World Taekwondo article says it was established in 1973 "after it separated from the International Taekwon-Do Federation because of political reasons". The ITF article says the heads of the nine kwans "formed a new group called 'Taekwondo'" and that "the South Korean Government established the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) to promote their 'Taekwondo' globally as an Olympic competitive sport".

The three versions agree on the shape (a break in the mid-1960s, a withdrawal of support in 1972, a new federation in 1973) and on the word "political". They differ on who did what, and none says what the politics were beyond North Korea.

Olympic Recognition, per the World Taekwondo Article

• 1974: affiliated to the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF, now SportAccord).
• 17 July 1980: recognised by the International Olympic Committee at its 83rd Session in Moscow.
• 1988 and 1992: demonstration sport at the Seoul and Barcelona Games (the article names the Seoul venue and the 25th Olympiad in Barcelona).
• 4 September 1994: adopted as an official sport of the 2000 Summer Olympics at the 103rd IOC Session in Paris.
• 2013: recognised by the International Paralympic Committee (16 October); the article says the IPC "later included taekwondo in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympics".

The article names Kim Un-yong as the first president in 1973 and says he resigned in 2004, when Choue Chung-won was elected. It gives no reason for the resignation and I did not read further, so I make no claim about it. As of May 2023 it lists 213 member nations.

The ITF After 2002

The ITF article says that after Choi's death in June 2002 "the International Taekwon-Do Federation experienced a succession dispute", and that this produced "separate organizations that each claimed continuity". It describes three groups: one recognising Chang Ung as president and linked to the Vienna-based structure; one electing Trần Triệu Quân (later led by Pablo Trajtenberg and, from 2019, Paul Weiler); and one supporting Choi's son, Choi Jung-hwa, originally based in Toronto. The Taekwondo article says the split happened "in 2001 and then again in 2002" into "three separate ITF federations, each of which continues to operate today under the same name". Each, the ITF article says, "claims to preserve the teachings and legacy of Choi Hong Hi". So "ITF taekwondo" is itself not a single body today.

The ITF article also says that "in the years that followed, many of the founding masters of the ITF and several other instructors left the organization to form their own independent organizations following disagreements with Choi, mainly because Choi Hong Hi also wanted North Korea to be a part of the ITF". No further source is named.

A Short Factual Note on North Korea

Following the course's scope rule, this is all I give. The Choi Hong-hi article says Choi "traveled and defected to North Korea" in 1979, was "welcomed by the government and supported in his project of spreading Taekwondo to the world", and died in Pyongyang on 15 June 2002 "where he received a state funeral". It describes him as "controversial due to his introduction of taekwondo to North Korea", and says World Taekwondo portrays him "as either an unimportant or a dishonorable figure" because of the defection. The ITF article says one of the three successor groups recognised Chang Ung as president, and that this organisation "belongs to North Korea" (the article's wording, which I read as saying that president was from there). I do not use North Korean sources, I do not describe practice there, and I draw no conclusions beyond what the articles say.

Reading Rules From This Chapter

1. Name the body. "Taekwondo" in a headline might mean ITF, Kukkiwon/WT or an independent school. Check which family and which of the three ITF groups.
2. Institution, rule-book, style. The Kukkiwon defines the style; World Taekwondo runs the sport; the ITF has its own syllabus. They answer different questions.
3. "Political" is a placeholder. Every article uses the word and none explains it fully. Treat it as a gap.
4. Check each date against its source. Five contradictions in four articles suggest how easily dates drift when one organisation's history is retold by another's partisans.

Exercises

Next chapter: Forms, Sparring and Belts, which looks at poomsae and patterns, how sparring and scoring are described, the belt and dan system, and how rules and equipment have changed.