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WHERE WE STAND ON ..... INTERNATIONAL TAEKWONDO FEDERATION The International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) is one of the two leading sport taekwondo organizations in the world today. Whereas the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) represents the Republic of Korea and is a member of the international Olympic community, the International Taekwondo Federation represents communist North Korea. (See The Korea Times at: http://www.hankooki.com/kt_sports/200209/t2002090917174747110.htm The International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) also probably comes as close to being a personality cult as exists within the Korean martial arts community. It revolves around the man who is the Rudolph Hess of Korea. Choi, Hong Hi has been quite successful in rewriting history as it relates to his place in it, and having gullible Westerners believe his version. The beliefs of westerners, and Choi’s acolytes, do not erase the truth as it is known in the Koreas, however. Choi insists on referring to himself as General Choi. That is the manner in which he is usually referred, incorrectly, within the martial arts community. His habitual use of this military rank in his writing tells us something about the man. He dishonors himself and debases the profession of arms. When written in combination with one’s name, the military title “General” refers to a particular rank, that represented in the US and ROK armies by four stars worn on the collar. Choi, Hong Hi never held this rank; neither in the Army of the Republic of Korea, nor in any other army. Choi did serve in the Korean army. He was a general officer. As a Brigadier, (wearing one star) Choi served as the Chief of Staff to General Paik Sun Yup, the first Korean officer to achieve four-star rank in that army. From the public record, it appears that, as an officer in the army of a nation fighting a terrible war on their own soil, Mister Choi never held a combat command nor ever performed duties which would have placed him in harm’s way as a soldier. Choi did go on to command an infantry division before retiring, but it was a training division, and stationed on an off-shore island. In 1967, Choi received the Distinguished Service Medal, First Class, from the Republic of Vietnam. This was two years after he had been forced into retirement from the Korean Army. The award was symbolic of Vietnam’s appreciation of the support it was receiving from the nation of Korea. It was not for any personal military service by Choi in that war-torn land. Choi promoted himself as the Founder of Taekwondo. There is, of course, no single Founder of Taekwondo, which derived from the Japanese art of Shotokan Karate, and in which all of the founding grandmasters of the original nine kwons of the Korea Taekwondo Association held teaching certificates. Choi’s claim appears to have originated in a meeting wherein the discussion turned to what to call the new art to differentiate it from Karate-do. As it is reported, Choi, as an army officer had one of the new dictionaries which were just then being distributed within the army. (Please recall that the teaching of the Korean language had been prohibited under the Japanese and the current written language is post-World war II.) Choi produced his goverment-issue dictionary and everyone agreed to the term “TaeKwonDo”. Of such a pea did Choi’s “Founder” beanstalk grow. All of this aside, where Mister Choi disgraced himself in the eyes of the people of the Republic of Korea, is when he unilaterally decided to travel to communist North Korea to negotiate reunification of the two Koreas. That was just a little over the top in the eyes of most Koreans (North and South) and the South Korean government was not amused. Choi fled the Republic of Korea. Obviously not welcome in the United States, he settled in Canada. From Canada he continued to visit North Korea and added Communist China and the Soviet Union to his travel itinerary, at the height of the Cold War. ITF members seem to forget that Korea, not Canada, remains the home of the Korean military art of Taekwondo. Oh Do Kwan, the Taekwondo kwon formed by Choi, Hong Hi, is now one of the two inactive kwons of the Korea Taekwondo Association. (The other inactive kwon being Ji Do Kwan.) What honorable Korean would want to be associated with a traitor to their nation? Kukki Taekwondo, or National Taekwondo, is the national sport of Korea. This is now an Olympic sport. The World Taekwondo Federation is the international governing body of this sport. There are national associations for this sport in over 160 countries around the world. There are many good, honest, well-intentioned people who have been recruited into Choi, Hong Hi’s organization, and the fighting system he developed. They undoubtedly receive a good physical workout and the discipline of that practice may be providing them self-improvement. To those end’s, God bless such students. Anyone thinking that they are participating in a traditional Korean military art through the International Taekwondo Federation, however, is seriously mistaken. The International Taekwondo Federation is neither traditional, nor Korean, nor a military art; nor does it meet the existing standards for such an art in the Republic of Korea. Whatever may be said about Choi, Hong Hi - traitor, fraud, egotist, etc., - he was first and foremost a politician, on a global scale. The International Taekwondo Federation was and is, first and last, about politics...... politics...... politics. Choi, Hong Hi died on June 15, 2002. He is buried in communist North Korea. © 2002, 2003 Joseph F. Connolly, II. |
