Choue Chung-won Elected as New WTF President

Choue Chung-won, a chair professor of Beijing University, was elected as the new president of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) to lead the “post-Kim Un-yong” era.

At the extraordinary general meeting of the WTF held at the Hyatt Hotel at Incheon International Airport, Choue was elected to be the second president of the WTF, 106 votes to 41 votes, beating the former president of the America Taekwondo Association, Park Cha-seok.

Choue is to serve for ten months before the third president is elected at the general meeting in Madrid, Spain, and will finish the tenure of the former president Kim Un-yong, who retired in January.

Choue received a doctorate degree in international politics at Kotholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and served as professor of politics at Kyunghee University, was vice president of the Korean Olympic Committee, and was director of the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA). He has done a lot for the development of Taekwondo, including establishing a department of Taekwondo at Kyunghee University, which was the first in the world at a four-year university.

Meanwhile, acting president of WTF Park Sun-jae, who ran as a candidate along with Choue Chung-won and Park Cha-seok, withdrew from the election right before the poll.

Interview with the new president Choue follows.

- “How do you feel about becoming the one who will lead the ‘post-Kim Un-yong’ era, and what plans do you have?”

“I will devote myself to making WTF reborn as an international sports body and making Taekwondo become a permanent, regular Olympic event. I persuaded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge to promise this when I met him last month during a tour of Europe. I will run in the election for the third WTF president again in April of next year.”

- “What is the core of reform of the WTF?”

“Important figures from other countries in the Taekwondo world call for democratic management, transparency in finance, and impartiality in umpiring. Even though the WTF is an international organization, all of the members are Korean. The WTF may face a crisis again unless it is reborn as a genuine international sports organization.”

Hwan Soo Zang Sang-Ho Kim zangpabo@donga · com hyangsan@donga.com