Néstor Galarraga - The Power of the Warrior

As I explained in the first report, I started investigating this martial art in March of 1946 and on April 11 1955 I named it Tae Kwon Do. With the consent of Korea and nine other Nations, I founded the International Tae Kwon Do Federation (I.T.F.), a worldwide organization based in Seoul, Korea, on March 22 1966. Since then, with the aid of the advocates of the martial arts, in 1967 Tae Kwon Do was already spread across approximately fifty nations, forty of which were national Tae Kwon Do associations that became its affiliate members, including the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association (K.T.A.).

Unfortunately, the former president Park Chung Hee, who once was my comrade-in-arms, due to his thirst for power, appropriated this martial art. By means of my friends and intermediaries, Park constantly demanded my cooperation, but each time he was faced with my rejection. It is well known that this was the beginning of an opened hostility towards me, personally, and towards the International Tae Kwon Do Federation.

Then, one could ask why Park was so anxious to obtain my cooperation, since I was neither a political person nor his best friend. It was obvious that he wanted to have access to the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, which was an organization set forth nationally and internationally that could serve as a powerful muscle in favor of his dictatorship. I could exemplify my statement by mentioning that Park used Tae Kwon Do instructors to kidnap fifty Korean students and teachers that were studying in western Germany and Europe in 1967. This kidnapping event was known as the “East Berlin Incident”.

Naturally, it would have been intelligent to cooperate with Park, if I would have ambitioned power and money. But for someone like me, who valued Tae Kwon Do above my life and my family, it was impossible to do something like that.

In retaliation, Park appointed a “complication control committee” as an attempt to create an internal fragmentation between the International Tae Kwon Do Federation and the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association. Ironically, the committee´s decision in my favor forced Park to use his last resort; he changed the President of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association, Mr. Yong Chae Kim, for Mr. Un Yong Kim, who is currently the President of the World Federation (WTF). This happened before the 1970 presidential elections.

I still held out some hope over Un Young Kim, in view of the fact that the president of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association would become the vice-president of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation and the president of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation would become honorary chairman of the board of the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association. Moreover, Un Young Kim´s rank was lower than mine and a close friend, and I trusted he would not cause any additional harm to a situation that was already quite dangerous. But my innocent intentions of finding a better solution based on our friendship was like “a lamb expecting mercy from a vicious coyote” within an amoral, unjust and inhumane dictatorship.

As it was foretold, political pressure escalated daily and, soon, I would have to choose between two alternatives: to succumb to injustice or to be sentenced to life imprisonment. It was under these dire circumstances that I decided to leave Korea, not because I was afraid to lose my life, but because I wanted to protect Tae Kwon Do and to follow my dream of spreading its seed throughout the world, without distinction of any kind, such as ideologies, religion, nationality or race, with the hope that this art could, one day, become an Olympic event.

Only my wife knew that in January of 1972 I secretly abandoned my homeland, Korea, and I headed to Canada, where I knew no one, to start a new life in support of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation.

When Park knew of his failure to keep me in Korea with the purpose of controlling the I.T.F. instructors and the Tae Kwon Do organizations through me, he ordered to take my only son and one of my daughters as hostages, as an attempt to force my return to Korea. It is not necessary to say that this was intolerable torture and a shock for me but, in tears, I announced that I was prepared to lose my children to save Tae Kwon Do.

No matter how inhumanly powerful Parker was, in the end, he was forced to accept that I would never go back to Korea. Thus, Park established in Korea the World Tae Kwon Do Federation (W.T.F.), using a great amount of money and power to bribe and recruit I.T.F. instructors, with the purpose of trying to kidnap me. Furthermore, he confined faithful Tae Kwon Do instructors and threatened their families and friends. Also, the World Tae Kwon Do Federation falsely announced the fragmentation of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, by saying that no member of the World Federation was going to be illegible for the Olympics until Tae Kwon Do was accepted as an Olympic event.

Esteemed members of the International Olympic Committee:

Please, take into account that, to this day, the South Korean government is still trying to destroy the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, by gathering all the possible sources in the world as South Korean delegations abroad, news media, commercial bureaus and Tae Kwon Do personalities.

Conversely, our International Tae Kwon Do Federation is a non-profit organization with no strength that is suffering. However, I am proud to inform that the International Tae Kwon Do Federation still has skilled, legitimate, patriotic and brilliant instructors around the world, in the West and, also, in the socialist nations, and they are still securing the spreading of Tae Kwon Do.

If you need proof of all the information abovementioned or you have any questions, please, do not hesitate to contact me.

It is not a happy occasion for me to reveal the unjust, cowardly and brutal activities of the South Korean government, represented in some members of the World Tae Kwon Do Federation. For the sake of millions of faithful Tae Kwon Do students and its eternal future, I ask you to understand my viewpoint.

Together with the members of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation, I was astonished to find out that the World Tae Kwon Do Federation was recognized at the 83rd Session of the International Olympic Committee. The World Tae Kwon Do Federation is not based on the sport but it is rather a tool used by a political movement and it promotes the Chinese Palgwae martial arts (Chinese martial art) or Taegeuk (Japanese Karate), instead of Tae Kwon Do and, “as a tenant begs a landlord”, the World Tae Kwon Do Federation was recognized by the International Olympic Committee under the false name of Tae Kwon Do, something I would have never expected.

The International Tae Kwon Do Federation is the originator of Tae Kwon Do, with a long history and having as members even some socialist nations. For this reason, I am curious to know how it is possible that the members of the International Olympic Committee, who manage and are responsible for the athletes in the world, could acknowledge the World Tae Kwon Do Federation when, actually, it is the International Tae Kwon Do Federation the organization known worldwide to “promote physical and moral qualities, in order to build a better and more peaceful world and to introduce Tae Kwon Do students to a brotherhood throughout the whole world”.

We can see the destructive intention of the World Tae Kwon Do Federation when it falsely announced that Tae Kwon Do was accepted as one of the Olympic events by the International Olympic Committee. This proves that the real motive of the World Tae Kwon Do Federation is to recruit instructors from the International Tae Kwon Do Federation above all else.

Dear friends:

Like the famous story of King Salomon, who devised a way to detect the true mother of the child, by allowing the two women to pull from the arms of the infant, understand this is what I feel about Tae Kwon Do, when I say it is being used by a fake Tae Kwon Do organization.