Taekwondo’s UNESCO Heritage Bid Gains Traction with Launch of Five-Party Alliance

2025-08-08     Choi Kyuhyun reporter
On the 8th, Yang Na-gyeon, Head of the Heritage Policy Team at the Cultural Heritage Management Division of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, briefed participants from the five organizations on the progress of the service project for preparing the Taekwondo UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription application during the project kick-off meeting. / Photo=courtesy of the Korea Taekwondo UNESCO Promotion Committee.

The official campaign to inscribe Taekwondo as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity has begun. On August 8, five organizations — Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, Kukkiwon (World Taekwondo Headquarters), the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation, the Korea Taekwondo UNESCO Promotion Committee (NGO), and the Kyung Hee University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation — held a kick-off meeting at the Jeonbuk Provincial Government Building to launch a joint alliance for the bid.

More than 20 representatives attended the meeting to discuss the five-month project, scheduled from July 15 to December 20, 2025. Core tasks include preparing a UNESCO-compliant application, conducting domestic and international case studies, and carrying out collaborative research on Taekwondo’s cultural value. The project’s total budget is KRW 88 million, funded by Jeonbuk Province (KRW 44 million), Kukkiwon (KRW 22 million), and the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation (KRW 22 million).

Professor Cho Sung-kyun, the lead researcher overseeing the preparation of the Taekwondo UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription application, emphasizes the importance of visual materials for promoting Taekwondo and enhancing international understanding, presenting a video produced for Korea’s 2014 UNESCO inscription of traditional jang-making as a model. /Photo=courtesy of the Korea Taekwondo UNESCO Promotion Committee.

Jeonbuk, home to Taekwondowon — considered a symbolic birthplace of Taekwondo and a global pilgrimage site for practitioners — aims to lead the globalization of the martial art and reaffirm its cultural significance through this initiative.

Stakeholders expect the project to serve as a new model for central–local government cooperation, elevate Jeonbuk’s cultural and economic standing, and potentially pave the way for inter-Korean collaboration in the heritage listing process. The success of the bid is expected to hinge on thorough research and the precision of the application dossier.

Choi Kyuhyun reporter 
kh.choi@nvp.co.kr