MUJU -- The taekwondo demonstration team of the sport's South Korea-led world governing body will perform for the first time in Pyongyang this fall, the organization's leader said Friday.
Choue Chung-won, president of the World Taekwondo Federation said its demonstration team will perform during the opening ceremony of the world championships by the North Korea-led International Taekwondo Federation in September.
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A taekwondo demonstration team from the International Taekwondo Federation performs at Kukkiwon in Seoul on June 28, 2017. (Yonhap) |
"The WTF team will travel to Pyongyang from Sept. 16 to 20," Choue said at a press conference on the sidelines of the WTF World Taekwondo Championships. The ITF's championships will run from Sept. 17 to 21.
The two organizations agreed on the trip during the WTF World Taekwondo Championships, which will conclude later Friday in Muju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul.
The WTF is headquartered in Seoul and is the official world governing organization of taekwondo. The ITF, based in Vienna, is led by North Korean Ri Yong-son.
The ITF sent its demonstration team of 16 North Koreans to perform in the opening and the closing ceremonies of the WTF competition, as per the two organizations' cooperative agreement signed in August 2014, called the "Protocol of Accord."
This was the ITF's first visit to South Korea in 10 years and first to a WTF event in South Korea.
The ITF had 36 members overall in its delegation. Choue said the WTF's delegation in September will also have 36 people.
The Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ended in 1953 in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Koreans' trips across the tense border must be authorized by the government here and also require North Korea's consent. (Yonhap)
