The Founder of Taekwon-Do
General Choi Hong Hi, born in 1918 and died in 2002, was the founder of Taekwon-Do and President of the International Taekwon-Do Federation (I.T.F) until his passing. He was a retired General in the South Korean Army and was the country's first ambassador to Malaysia. General Choi held a Ninth Degree Black Belt, the highest in his chosen art. Towards the end of the Second World War, he was forced to join the Japanese Army as a student volunteer. Later, he was sentenced to seven years jail for planning to overthrow the Japanese Military High Command. It was during this time that General Choi first started developing the movements and patterns that make up the art of Taekwon- Do. He was later sentenced to death and execution was scheduled to take place on August 18th, 1944. Korea was liberated from the Japanese on August 16th and he was released.
General Choi originally studied the ancient art of Taekyon, which was first practiced approximately 1300 years ago in the Silla dynasty in Korea before he developed Taekwon-Do. The name Taekwon-Do actually describes a system of self-defence devised and named by General Choi Hong Hi. The actual words did not exist in that form in the Korean Language until General Choi Hong Hi formed a naming committee on April 11th 1955. So it would be seen as a mistake to use the name Taekwon-Do to describe a system of Self-Defence other than that laid down by General Choi and illustrated in his legacy text on Taekwon-Do.
General Choi’s Taekwon-Do is proof of his tenacity of dedication to keeping the original Taekwon-Do free from improved imitations and with the co-operation of all true Taekwon-Do students, no matter which grade, weed out those who seek to destroy his teachings.
Source: Worldwide Taekwon-Do
