'S. Korea ignored North's 2023 offer for joint UNESCO taekwondo listing'
In 2023, despite freezing inter-Korean relations and heightened cross-border tensions, North Korea proposed a joint UNESCO heritage listing for taekwondo — only for the South Korean government to sit on the offer and miss a crucial window, according to a key advocacy leader. Choi Jae-chun, head of the KOREA Taekwondo UNESCO Promotion Committee, revealed Wednesday that Pyongyang suggested a…
In 2023, North Korea extended an invitation for a joint UNESCO heritage listing for taekwondo, a proposal that the South Korean government failed to act upon in a timely manner, according to Choi Jae-chun, leader of the KOREA Taekwondo UNESCO Promotion Committee. Choi explained that Pyongyang had proposed a collaborative inscription, similar to the successful joint UNESCO registration of ssireum, traditional Korean wrestling, in 2018.
However, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration did not respond, allowing North Korea to file a separate application that is now close to final approval, raising concerns about Seoul ceding historical leadership over its national martial art. Choi recalled that North Korea contacted him in 2023, despite the extremely tense inter-Korean relations at the time, with Ri Yong-son, president of the North Korean-backed International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), suggesting filing separate applications first and then merging them into a joint listing later.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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