Taekwon-do as a North Korean Martial Art?… Likely to Be Listed Alone as UNESCO Heritage

[Anchor]

North Korea is expected to independently list Taekwon-do, a traditional martial art, as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. South Korea's initial efforts to pursue a joint listing have effectively fallen through.

Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung has the details.

[Reporter]

Administrator Heo Min of the Korea Heritage Service unexpectedly posted a message on his social media today (November 2).

He stated that as a result of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage evaluation, South Korea's traditional paper-making technology (Hanji) alongside North Korea's application for "traditional martial art Taekwon-do" are expected to receive a recommendation for inscription tomorrow.

North Korea's application for the inscription of Taekwon-do had already become an issue two years ago.

This was because it became belatedly known in March 2024 that North Korea had unilaterally applied to register Taekwon-do as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

At the time, a private organization pursuing a joint South-North Korean inscription of Taekwon-do claimed that while positive discussions had been underway with high-ranking North Korean officials since 2022, the effort fell through due to the government's lukewarm attitude.

[Choi Jae-choon / Head of the Korea Taekwon-do UNESCO Promotion Group : We have records in the Ministry of Unification showing that we met with (North Korean) Ri Yong-son, president of the International Taekwon-do Federation, starting in 2022. We reported everything. I visited the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korea Heritage Service.]

Administrator Heo explained that although they submitted an application in March and made efforts toward a joint inscription, it became difficult due to conditions such as inter-Korean relations.

[Ahn Ho / Spokesperson for the Korea Heritage Service : (North Korea) applied first, and then we applied in 2026, right? Because of that, and since there were no improving (political) environments or anything like that afterward, it seems that no matter what efforts were made, there were no results.]

Administrator Heo stated that even if North Korea's final inscription is confirmed this coming December, South Korea will continue to work toward registering its own version separately.

Taekwon-do is known to have had its name and system formed in South Korea during the 1950s and 1960s before being spread to North Korea in the 1980s, which is one of the reasons why domestic Taekwon-do practitioners are sensitive to this issue.

(VJ: Oh Se-kwan, Video Editing: Kim Jong-tae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.