A. The commission found the well-known martial art of Taekwondo has been contributed to heighten the national prestige of Korea overseas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.
B. Taekwondo has grown popularity over last decades and became a popular sports practiced by some 60,000,000 people worldwide in more than 188 countries.
C. The popularity of Taekwondo has continued to spread around the globe largely due to instructors either sent out by the Korea’s Taekwondo Federation or the Korean government, which have remained supportive on activities of dispatched Taekwondo instructors.
D. The International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) established by Hong-hee CHOI in 1966, in particular, prepared a corner stone to introduce Taekwondo internationally at the beginning of the period by hosting international competitions and dispatching instructors overseas.
E. At the later stage, Taekwondo became more systemized and eventually got selected as an official category of the Olympic Games, largely thanks to the efforts of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) founded in 1973 and its first president Woon-yong KIM.
F. The Korean government recognized Taekwondo as an effective device to utilize the cultural diplomacy and has actively aided to dispatch instructors overseas, host international Taekwondo competitions, and secured adequate budgets and facilities to implement thereof.
G. Hereby, the commission found there have not been sufficient documentation and evaluation concerning the above-mentioned issue and ascertained Taekwondo has positively impacted to reinforce the Korea’s national prestige in this regard.
* in Korean: http://www.jinsil.go.kr/Information_Notice/news/news_31/news31_4.asp
