Joint performance schedule agreed for inter-Korean taekwondo performances

Members of a North Korean taekwondo demonstration team give a performance at the opening ceremony of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships in Muju, North Jeolla Province last June. (provided by World Taekwondo)

Four separate events are scheduled to coincide with the Pyeongchang Olympics

A joint performance schedule has been decided for a North Korean-led International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) demonstration team at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

The South Korean-led federation World Taekwondo headed by WT President Choue Chung-won announced on Jan. 31 that “six officials including ITF president Ri Yong-son will be arriving on Feb. 7 at Gimpo Airport from Beijing, while 28 members of the ITF demonstration team, including chief Pak Yong-chil, will be arriving in South Korea the same day by bus over the west overland route.”

The six officials are scheduled to leave for Beijing on Feb. 15 for their return trip, while the 28 demonstration team members will be traveling back over the same route. Demonstration teams for the two federations will be participating jointly in a preliminary performance before the Pyeongchang Olympics opening ceremony on Feb. 9.

A total of four performances are scheduled, including others at the Gangwon Career Education Institute in Sokcho on Feb. 10, the Multipurpose Hall of Seoul City Hall on Feb. 12, and MBC Sangam Hall on Feb. 14. The three performances after the opening ceremony are to last one hour each, which the two federations’ teams performing for 25 minutes each and 10 minutes jointly.

At the Nanjing Youth Olympics in Aug. 2014, the two federations adopted an agreement with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in attendance, pledging mutual acknowledgement and respect and promising to form an international demonstration team.

South and North Korean members of a taekwondo demonstration team exchange gifts following a performance at the opening ceremony of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships in Muju, North Jeolla Province last June. (provided by World Taekwondo)

Demonstration teams for the two federations held their first-ever joint performance in May 2015 at the opening ceremony for WT’s World Taekwondo Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia. An ITF demonstration team also visited in June 2017 to perform at the opening and closing ceremonies of the World Taekwondo Championships in Muju, North Jeolla Province. At the time, Choue and Ri reached a spoken agreement to stage a joint demonstration team performance at the Seoul Winter Olympics.

Twenty of the 28 visiting demonstration team measures are to take the stage, including two coaches. Coach Song Nam-ho and ten of the team members also took part in the Muju performance last year.

By Kim Kyung-moo, senior staff writer

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