These numbers mean first of all only a date – which lies now 20 years back – which was and is of enormous meaning for Taekwon-Do. On this day, General Choi, Hong-Hi passed away, the founder of Taekwon-Do, a martial art that has no equal worldwide.
His lifelong efforts were aimed at developing a martial art that is not only characterized by physical training, but also by moral principles (Tenets of Taekwon-Do) and that should be the basis for a good and moral society (“Taekwon-Do a Way of Life”). Our task as members of the ITF family is to preserve his legacy and pass it on to the next generations – unadulterated, the way General Choi wanted it to be!
One of our members who was one of General Choi’s closest confidants for more than twenty years and visited him in hospital the day before his death is our Honorable Grand Master Thomas MacCallum (at that time ITF Secretray General). Below, he describes for us once again in retrospect the situation as he experienced it at that time.
GM Paul Weiler
ITF President