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| What is the International TaeKwonDo Federation? |
By:
Sung Il Oh |
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The members of the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) are known for their affinity to taking offense, so our answer to this question will be as circumspect as we can be, while still providing the reader a truthful answer to the question. In point of fact, whatever we write and however we answer, some faction of that organization is going to take offense.
Essentially, the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) is one of the original founding kwons of the Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA), writ large. Each of the founding grandmasters of the KTA was under the age of thirty, and the founder for OhDoKwan was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Korea (ROK).
He obtained his officer training serving in the Japanese army during World War II. Later, he would claim to having been imprisoned and awaiting execution for his pro-Korean patriotism, when Japan surrendered and the war ended. A claim which awaits substantiation decades later.
He did, however, rise to the rank of Major General during the Korean war, when he commanded a training division well away from the front. According to available records, he did once serve as Chief-of-Staff, in the rank of Colonel, to the General (a rank represented by four stars) commanding the ROK army’s only army Corps. A “Corps” is a maneuver unit which is above a Division and below an Army.
A Chief-of-Staff is essentially the manager of the headquarters staff, located in the rear area. There is no apparent documentary evidence that this officer ever commanded a fighting unit in combat.
Apparently disaffected by his failure to command the respect of his peers, this individual did a “Rudolph Hess”. Hess was Adolph Hitler’s personal secretary and right-hand man. In 1941, Hess flew secretly to Scotland in an attempt to effect a peace treaty between Germany and the United Kingdom. He was arrested, tried at the Nuremberg, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died at Spandau Prison in 1987, at the age of 93.
History was kinder to this Korean, who went to North Korean on his own volition and attempted to negotiate a peace treaty between North and South, without the authority or support of either. Viewed as a traitor by the nation and people of South Korea, he was adopted as a people’s hero by the North.
Simply put, the International Taekwondo Federation was the organization started by this individual and which, until his death, was the national governing body for Taekwondo in and for North Korea. It was, of course, never recognized by the International Olympic Committee, which admitted the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) as its member body for the sport of Taekwondo (properly called KukKi Taekwondo).
This former South Korean Major General was buried, as a people’s hero, in North Korea by the government he ultimately chose to serve. The same government that now joins with the South, in fielding a joint Korean Olympic Taekwondo team.
As to the current status of the International Taekwondo Federation ITF. With its founder gone, it is no longer recognized as a national sport organization in either Korea. The International Taekwondo Federation is a free-standing organization with no Korea-based affiliation.
The International Taekwondo Federation is not now, and has never been, recognized in Korea as a traditional Korean military art organization. The original kwon, OhDoKwan Taekwondo, founded by this North Korean people’s hero, which became the International Taekwondo Federation ITF, still exists as a member kwon of the KTA. A kwon born with a promise of potential greatness, ultimately unfulfilled.
About the author: Sung Il Oh is the Executive Director of the Korean Military Arts Federation and a recognized expert of Korean healing techniques and natural medicine. He can be contacted at www.MilitaryArts.kr |
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