DPRK TOUR - REFLECTIONS

REFLECTIONS

Dr. George Vitale

The drive back to Austria in a snowstorm

I have been involved in Taekwon-Do longer than I care to remember. I started when many were still calling it Korean Karate. My life has been added to and made special in some many key ways through my long time involvement in this wonderful Korean Martial Art of Self Defense. I truly believe Taekwon-Do is Korea’s greatest gift to the world. Untold millions have had their lives enhanced by their exposure to this wholesome activity. My solid connections and strong friendships with the Koreans from the northern part of Korea began in 1989. I was asked by Taekwon-Do’s principle founder, General Choi Hong Hi to take the USA Team to Pyongyang and compete in the first ever Taekwon-Do tournament hosted by the DPR Korea. 

Our relationship began to solidify after I retired from a 24-year career with the New York State Police. My retirement in 2004-5 afforded me the luxury to concentrate on Taekwon-Do and the allowed much more frequent travel to pursue the Art I love so much. I was now able to take a more active role in assisting Grandmaster Jung Woo Jin follow through on Gen. Choi’s desire to utilize his Taekwon-Do to build a more peaceful world. Grandmaster Jung has led the way for 2 very successful cultural exchanges in the USA between the Americans and the North Koreans. He has also taken several groups of American and international Taekwon-Do practitioners to North Korea as well.

The team shows their versatility by shovelling snow at ITF Headquarters

My personal involvement in helping to make these efforts happen, have given me great satisfaction in knowing I have tried to move this laudable goal of Gen. Choi forward. Over the years I can see how the personal connections I have made are not only real, but lasting. As new members are added to the team I also see how easier it is for me to connect, as the older members are able to share with the newer ones their positive experiences with me.

This particular trip was poignant in yet another way. The goodwill tour I was invited to be a part of as a team member started in Vienna Austria. Austria’s political neutrality played an important role during the Cold War when that “Iron Curtain” divided Europe and much of the world. It was here that Gen. Choi moved the ITF Headquarter to, precisely in order to utilize that neutral posture to help continue to spread his Taekwon-Do worldwide, without regard to nationality, ethnicity, race, religion or creed. His Taekwon-Do knew no borders. It was fitting that this tour started and ended in Vienna, where the initial show was performed in front of at least 16 Ambassadors.

Saying so long at the Vienna airport until next time

What was particularly striking for me was that the next 3 demonstrations took place in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Long before borders became solidified, common languages, customs and culture connected areas. These 2 areas were once part of the Austrian-Hungary Empire. However when this Empire fell after losing “The Great War” (WWI), an artificially created state was formed and called Czechoslovakia. With the onset of the Second World War, the union again became disjointed; only to be joined again in the aftermath of WWII, by the communists led by the Soviet Union.

When the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, Czechoslovakia divided peacefully in the “Velvet Divorce”. There were now two Republics formed by a common language, custom and culture. The Korean Taekwon-Do Committee team conducted their goodwill tour, while back home, the country remains artificially divided, despite thousands of years of a common language, customs and culture, made possible in part by the natural borders in place forged by the water on the 3 sides of the Korean peninsular and the high mountain ranges and rivers of their northern border with China. It is our hope that continued cultural exchanges can help in some small way to bring people together!

I eagerly look forward to the next tour I will try to make with the team:

GREENLAND in September of 2013