Park Jung-tae

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Park Jung-tae

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Park Jung-tae
Born	c. 1943 Korea
Died	April 11, 2002(2002-04-11) (aged 58–59) Canada
Style	Taekwondo
Rank	9th dan taekwondo (GTF), 8th dan taekwondo (ITF)
Notable students	Sabree Salleh
Website	http://www.gtftaekwondo.com/

Park Jung-tae (c. 1943 – 11 April 2002) was a South Korean master of taekwondo and a pioneer of that martial art in Canada.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was one of the twelve original masters of taekwondo of the Korea Taekwon-Do Association.^[4]^[5] Following a career in the South Korean military, Park emigrated to Canada in 1970. He was a key leader in the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) under Choi Hong-hi, but founded the Global Taekwon-Do Federation in 1990 after leaving the ITF. After teaching taekwondo for many years, Park died in 2002.

Early life

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Park was born in 1943 or 1944 in Korea, during the period of Japanese occupation.^[1]^[6] He began training in the martial arts as a child, starting with boxing before moving on to judo and then taekwondo. Park was one of the twelve original taekwondo masters of the Korea Taekwon-Do Association. In 1964, he was the second President of the Korean Tae Soo Do Association.^[7] From 1965 to 1967, he was ranked 4th dan and directed instruction of soldiers in Vietnam.^[8]

Canada

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Park moved to Canada where he met his future wife, Linda, in Toronto in 1970.^[9] During the 1970s, Park established the Manitoba Tae Kwon-Do Association.^[10] In 1975, he was ranked 6th dan.^[11] In 1978 and 1979, he accompanied Choi on taekwondo demonstration tours in Europe.^[12] In 1984, he conducted a seminar in Brisbane, Australia.^[13]^[14] At the time, he was ranked 8th dan in the ITF.^[14] In November 1984, Park was elected Secretary-General of the ITF.^[15] He also held the position of Technical Chairman of the ITF.^[16]

Park founded the Global Taekwondo Federation (GTF) on 14 June 1990, the year after his departure from the ITF due to North–South Korean political issues.^[1]^[17]^[18] He created six additional hyung to be practised along with the earlier ITF patterns.^[16] Amongst those who affiliated with the GTF was Sabree Salleh in 1998.^[19] Shortly before he died, Park promoted Salleh to 9th dan (GTF).^[19]

Later life

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Park died on 11 April 2002 due to poor health, and is survived by his wife and their children: Juliann, Heather, and Christopher.^[1]^[6]^[20] Linda Park succeeded her husband as President of the GTF,^[6]^[20] and holds honorary 9th dan ranking.^[21]