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World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) president

Two leading federations are taking their first steps toward inter-Korean taekwondo exchange.

World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) president Choue Chung-won, 68, announced the news while speaking to reporters on Feb. 16 at the Seoul Press Center.

“We have formally invited president Chang Ung and a demonstration team of 20 athletes from the North Korean-led International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) to the opening ceremony of the World Taekwondo Championships this May in Chelyabinsk, Russia,” Choue said.

“We sent a written invitation in mid-January, and we quickly received an affirmative response,” he added.

Chang previously said in a Feb. 6 interview with Voice of America that he had sent an official invitation to Choue in early January, which was accepted.

The WTF invitation comes after a letter of intent signed by the two federations last year. Its terms hold that athletes from each group may compete in competitions and events organize by the other and must abide by the competition rules of the respective organizer.

Choue also announced discussions on adding one additional weight division to the men’s and women’s taekwondo events at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

“We are looking at increasing the numbers of medals while keeping the number of competitors the same,” he explained.

“The inclusion of taekwondo in both the Olympics Games and the Special Olympics has helped it to gain a stronger footing as a sport,” he added.

On Jan. 31, taekwondo was named an official event at the Special Olympics as of 2020. Meanwhile, concerns had been raised about the sport being crowded out by competitors in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where baseball and softball - and potentially karate - are being introduced as demonstration events.

For now, the WTF is hanging its hopes on Choue’s election as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which currently has five vacancies for international sporting association representatives. The position is exempt from the mandatory retirement age of 70.

By Lee Chan-young, staff reporter

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