From Kyung Hee to WT: Young Seek Choue’s legacy of peace

MASTKD ESPAÑOL

When World Taekwondo (WT) promoted initiatives with refugee populations, cooperated with United Nations agencies, and positioned Taekwondo as a tool for social transformation, it did so on a concrete basis: an intellectual and humanistic tradition linked to the family history of its president, Dr. Chungwon Choue, and the legacy of his father, Dr. Young Seek Choue, founder of Kyung Hee University.

Dr. Chungwon Choue, president of WT since 2004, brought that heritage to the field of sports governance: he turned an idea—peace as a guiding value—into verifiable structures, programs, and alliances, sustained over time and recognized by the Olympic movement.

Kyung Hee University: the academic origin of a peacemaking agenda

Young Seek Choue was a leading figure in higher education in Korea and consolidated an international profile linked to cultural diplomacy and the promotion of humanistic values. His legacy became institutionally connected to Kyung Hee University, which preserves that history as part of its identity and global outreach.

1981: a university proposal that became a United Nations date

In 1981, Young Seek Choue promoted an initiative from the International Association of University Presidents that, in the same year, reached the UN institutional circuit.

This process led to Resolution 36/67, adopted on November 30, 1981, by which the General Assembly established the International Day of Peace as a commemoration linked to the opening of its regular period of sessions (the third Tuesday in September).

Later, the UN consolidated the definitive date: through Resolution 55/282 (2001), the General Assembly decided that, starting in 2002, the International Peace Day would be observed every September 21, and defined it as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, encouraging educational and public awareness actions.

Kyung Hee and peace as a sustained university policy

Kyung Hee did not treat peace as an abstract concept. It incorporated it as part of its institutional identity: its own official chronology records that the 1981 proposal was approved by the General Assembly and that, in 1982, the university commemorated the first International Peace Day with a ceremony and conference.

Today, the university continues this tradition with the Peace BAR Festival, held every September 21 to commemorate International Peace Day.

Young Seek Choue died in 2012, and Kyung Hee continues to institutionalize his legacy: in 2024, for example, the university system created the Miwon Peace Prize in his honor, highlighting him as a founder (1921–2012) and a reference point for a vision of “peace for humanity.”

Kyung Hee and Taekwondo: a training hub

Kyung Hee is also an academic powerhouse in Taekwondo. The university itself presents its Taekwondo Department within the College of Physical Education and describes its educational mission.

At the postgraduate level, Kyung Hee offers specific programs: its Graduate School reports that the area opened the first university degree program in Taekwondo (1983) and then evolved into master’s and doctoral degrees related to the sport.

This centrality was reinforced with international programs associated with the WT ecosystem in joint training programs aimed at foreign students seeking to study in Korea.

From September 21 at the UN to action in WT

On September 21, 2015, at the UN headquarters in New York, Chungwon Choue publicly announced the plan to create the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation, designed to support disadvantaged populations through Taekwondo programs.

That announcement was transformed into an operational humanitarian platform, with programs in camps and vulnerable communities, including a prominent presence in the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan, which multiple organizations have mentioned as an emblematic academy.

Every September 21, WT “marks” International Peace Day

WT has turned September 21 into a date for institutional communication and public positioning: theTaekwondo ecosystem publishes official messages and campaigns that connect peace, sport, and social action, with the historic slogan associated with the Choue family as a conceptual framework.

The line is sustained with continuity: WT uses the anniversary to reinforce its narrative of “sport for peace” and to link it to the origin story of International Peace Day, which dates back to 1981.

Olympic recognition

In 2023, the International Olympic Committee awarded the Olympic Cup to the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation, a recognition that validates the consistency, impact, and institutional continuity of its work with refugee and displaced communities.

The legacy

Young Seek Choue’s legacy was not encapsulated in a university biography: it was projected as cultural and institutional architecture. In 1981, peace entered the global agenda from Kyung Hee and was adopted by the General Assembly; decades later, his son transformed that same concept into concrete sports policy: humanitarian structures, alliances, programs, and Olympic recognition.

WT does not “add” peace to Taekwondo: it places it at the center, as intellectual heritage turned into action.

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Claudio Aranda

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