WoMAU

President`s Message

introduction

Martial arts is also a means of self-discipline, mental and physical health, a cultural content containing tradition and diversity, as well as an educational methodology through public diplomacy and non-governmental exchange platforms that connecting people to people.

Chungju city made Taekkyeon designated as Korea's representative traditional martial arts (National Intangible Cultural Property No.76) in 1996, and has held a martial arts festival since 1998 to preserve and promote it. With the success of the festival, it expanded to an international scale and 28 martial arts organizations from 26 countries participating in the World Martial Arts Festival in 2002, agreed to act as a center for world peace through the realization of the values of justice and peace and the World Martial Arts Union could be founded on October 2, 2002. With the financial support of Chungju City, the World Martial Arts Union has grown into the world's first international non-governmental organization for martial arts with covering 70 martial arts organizations in 47 countries as of January 2023, and the city opened International Center for Martial Arts (ICM) in November 2020 and held the World Martial Arts Mastership Competition in September 2019, allowing Chungju to represent the mecca of world martial arts in name and reality.

Martial arts is a tool with great potential to contribute to a sound mind and body and is a useful tool for social and even world peace. The World Martial Arts Union will work with member organizations around the world to preserve traditional martial arts as a cultural heritage and to include martial arts in the country's youth's physical education curriculum so that the value of such martial arts can flourish.