The ITF was founded in March 22, 1966 with associations in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapour, Germany, USA, Turkay, Italy, Arabia, Egypt and Korea. However, behind this commemorative date one can find a complicated historical context.

The XXth century history of Korea begins with the invasion of Japan to Korean in 1894. From this year and until 1945, the year that WW II ends, Japan keeps its domination over Korea, a fundamental reason for the rising nationalist spirit inside the country. Once the war was over, the influence of American and Soviet armies originated and intern conflict between Capitalist and Comunist Thought. The result was a three year war that ended in an international "agreement": To divide the territory of Korea in two pieces. Parallel 38 marks the frontier that divides the country in two independent territories.

Naturally, this has been a tough conflict. One National Spirit, breaked up by external forces. It shows us the real suffering of the people of Korea.

General Choi and Taekwon-Do didn't escape from this conflict.

He created a new technique that took the name of Taekwon-Do. After a Masters conference, historians and taekyon promoters, it was believed that this named would keep the memory of the Korean ancestral martial art, and would give  continuity to this tradition. But being so many martial art schools in Korea, it happens that not all of them participated of this accomplishment. In 1959, a different association was created that competed against the recently created Korean Taekwon-Do Association. This gave origin to different conflicts that ended in a division of Taekwon-Do in Korea and the world. At this moment, General Choi decided to found an International Federation to go beyond the frontiers of its divided country and to radiate the new martial art around the world, This would be the International Taekwon-Do Federation.

Since the foundation of the ITF, the history begins to witness the power of a new scientific technique called Taekwon-Do.

Rapidly, the ITF penetrated the frontier of many countries in all the continents and for this reason the headquarters were taken th another place. General Choi chose the city of Toronto in Canada in 1972. After some years the headquarters were moved to Vienna, Austria to support the difussion of Taekwon-Do in the Socialist European countries.

In this way, the group of students of General Choi arrived to the different countries of America. In 1974, General Choi visited Colombia for the first time.

It can be noticed that the expansion of Taekwon-Do wuoldn't have be possible without the tireless effort of its founder, who has visited personally all the countries where his technique is being practiced. 

This huge work has influenced the live of many people worldwide, among them the representative Director of the Asociación de Taekwon-Do ITF Colombia, Sabun Jorge H. Puerto, who follow and assist General Choi in many of this seminars. Therefore he acquired great technique skills and a knowledge about international affairs that took him to lead the original Taekwon-Do project in Colmbia.

One of the most representative satisfactions of the development of Taekwon-Do has been the documentation of the investigative work of General Choi in an Encyclopedia first published in 1985, master piece of the martial art world, which has improved the quality of Taekwon-Do instruction.

However, for General Choi the duty is not finished. a great deal of his effort has been focused in the search of Korean re-unification. This means that unification of Taekwon-Do is a primary target, which would make Taekwon-Do grow inmensily. By now, we can witness the great happiness that cause us the fact that he was nominated for the Peace Nobel Prize, the most recognizable award that a man can receive in the fight for building a more peacful world.

Actualizado: 18/11/01