Taekwondo Says Diplomacy Can Promote Peace in Korea

(ATR) World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue says he welcomes the North Korean proposal to send a taekwondo demonstration team to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.

"World Taekwondo is confident that our demonstration team, together with a demonstration team of North Korea, will play a role at the PyeongChang Winter Games" Choue told Around the Rings in an exclusive interview.

North Korean officials agreed to send a large delegation to the Olympics in neighboring South Korea despite the tensions that persist between the two countries. State representatives from both countries spoke face-to-face for the first time in more than two years on Jan. 9 at a peace village in the Demilitarized Zone.

Included in the Olympic delegation is the taekwondo demonstration team, along with athletes, cheering and performing squads and state officials.

The upcoming demonstration at PyeongChang is the latest collaboration between World Taekwondo and the North Korean-based International Taekwondo Federation. At the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia and the 2017 World Championships in Muju, South Korea, North and South Korean athletes performed joint demonstrations.

These collaborations were made possible by an agreement signed by the heads of WT and ITF in Nanjing, China in 2014, with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach overseeing the proceedings.

"In Muju in June 2017, we reached a verbal agreement with the ITF to conduct joint demonstrations in PyeongChang," Choue told ATR. "I am confident that taekwondo from the two Koreas will not only delight the crowds at the Winter Olympics, but also promote inter-Korean friendship and cooperation that we can build on, going forward, in the interests of sport and peace."

The joint demonstration could play a pivotal role in the reconciliation efforts between North and South Korea, according to Yonhap. Tensions have persisted in the peninsula since the Korean War of 1950-1953 that ended in a truce agreement opposed to a peace treaty.

At the demonstration at Muju 2017, the North Korean-led ITF brought 36 athletes to South Korea. The next demonstration during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics will be another headline in the sport’s storied history in the peninsula. Taekwondo earned the status of a demonstration sport for the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics before joining the Olympic program for Sydney 2000.

A WT source told ATR that the venue of the joint demonstration in PyeongChang is not yet known. This could be determined during the inter-Korean talks that the IOC says will take place Jan. 20 in the Olympic capital of Lausanne.

Written by Miguel Hernandez

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