Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 1

COVER STORY
Pope Francis Awarded Honorary Black Belt in 2009
by WTF President Chungwon Choe.
his interest and gratitude for the humanitarian and human development
activities that Taekwondo has embraced.
The Mission of the New Kukkiwon President:
The Kukkiwon, as most all of you know, is the governing
body for Taekwondo in Korea, founded in 1972. It laid the
groundwork for Taekwondo’s globalization, developing
not only World Championship events, but also an
organized structure for Taekwondo curriculum and
standards. In 1978, Kukkiwon succeeded in unifying
Taekwondo by integrating 10 separate Taekwondo
Kwans; Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Jido Kwan,
Song Moo Kwan, Chang Moo Kwan, Kang Duk Won,
Jung Do Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Han Moo Kwan and
Kwan Li Kwan. Kukkiwon is also home of the World
Taekwondo Academy and is supervised by the
International Sports Division of the Ministry of
Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
This unification has helped Taekwondo
expand it’s reach internationally
and help support the growth of its
schools and members.
Grandmaster Dong Sup Lee
was elected president of the
organization on January 21,
2021, election for President
of Kukkiwon (aka the World
Taekwondo Headquarters)
against former Vice President
Choon-Kil Lim in a landslide victory.
He managed to win 55 out of
75 votes, beating out Lim’s count of
19 votes.
Lee’s victory was so decisive, in part,
because he garnered the support of
many senior Taekwondo officials
and influencers who knew Lee was
an avid Taekwondo artists, not
‘just’ a politician or business person.
Lee is a 9th dan Grandmaster
in Taekwondo, and served as senator in the 20th session of the
National Assembly in Korea.
Since the beginning of his administration, Lee has outlined, and
has been executing an aggressive agenda to revitalize Taekwondo,
in part, by returning to the traditional values and culture of the
art. To keep the art a “traditional” martial art, and draw clear differences
between the ‘sport’ and the ‘art’ of Taekwondo. By intention,
the WT (World Taekwondo) will continue to promote the ‘sport’ of
Taekwondo, while the Kukkiwon will focus on its traditional development,
curriculum, students and school (dojang) operators.
I’ve personally been engaged in several meetings, discussions
and organizational meetings with Grandmaster Lee, and what I’ve
seen is a DEEP passion for Taekwondo, and his ardent desire to
promote traditional Taekwondo throughout the world. Especially
since the COVID pandemic has had such a negative impact on
schools in virtually every nation.
In just the first few months of Grandmaster Lee’s administration,
he’s accomplished some laudable initiatives, and a breakneck
pace.
To coordinate with the board of directors, Grandmaster
Lee recruited an all star staff of passionate Taekwondo
Grandmasters, Masters, Instructors, political leaders,
business leaders, and operational specialists
that he knew had the right mindset for this intense
‘restructuring’ job and placed them in key positions
immediately.
He’s “Re-Branded” the Kukkiwon with new goals
to help expand Taekwondo and its organization, new
logos to reinforce the ‘traditional’ aspects of the art,
and redesigning the World headquarters to more appropriately
pay respect to the international Taekwondo
community. On May 1, 2021, he held a special ceremony
for the completion of 202 new flagpoles honoring the
Kukkiwon nations. Kukkiwon never had a symbol
to recognize the various countries it serves, so
the recent installation of the flagpoles, and other
symbols, has been inspiring for Taekwondo
communities all over the world.
On April 13, 2021 Grandmaster Lee
held (the first ever) worldwide “Virtual
Conference”, where attendees from
more than 200 nations attended, and
discussed his vision for the Kukkiwon,
and where he listened to many
nation’s representatives, and their concerns
about the past, and what they feel
they needed from Kukkiwon. It was inspiring
to see the Kukkiwon President listen so
intently, and seek to deeply understand the
needs of the schools and members.
President Lee formed task force teams
to assist with dojang development,
administrative reforms, and global
expansion of Taekwondo. He willcontinued
on page 40
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