Korean civic group VANK controversial for introducing Taekwondo's 'origin'

South Korea's cyber-diplomatic mission, VANK, created an English-language site to spread taekwondo around the world and has caused controversy by stating, "Taekwondo's origins lie in Taekkyeon," which dates back to the B.C. era.

On January 9th, VANK opened the Taekwondo English introduction site "Martial arts for everyone in the world". Regarding the origin of taekwondo, VANK said on the same site, "Taekwondo was known as 'Taekkyeon' during the Three Kingdoms period." It continued, "Despite Japanese rule, taekwondo regained its glory thanks to martial arts masters who secretly protected their knowledge."

Contrary to VANK's claims, the emphasis is on the theory that taekwondo is a modern martial art that originated in Shotokan karate in Japan during the period of Japanese rule.

The International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) also notes that taekwondo is influenced by karate and is a modern martial art founded in 1950 by President Choi Hong-hee. The late Lee Jung-gu, a former taekwondo master who popularized taekwondo around the world, also said in an interview that taekwondo originated from karate.

In fact, both Choi Hong-hee and Lee Won-guk, who coined and started using the term taekwondo, practiced karate, and those who later established taekwondo dojo also practiced karate and Chinese martial arts. Lee Former-guk later claimed that he had adopted taekkyeon, but he could not provide any evidence as to how he did so. Since then, some Taekwondo practitioners have actually attempted to graft Taekwondo to Taekkyon, but the conclusion is that there is not enough evidence to say that Taekwondo originated from Taekkyon.

Those who practiced Taekwondo in the early days wore karate uniforms, and the culture of dividing tiers according to the color of the obi came from Japan.

On the other hand, the World Taekwondo Federation (WT), like VANK, claims that Taekwondo originated in Goryeo Korea's unique martial arts.