[By NBC-1TV S. A Lee]Dearest global taekwondo family,

It is my great pleasure to announce that June 11 marks the 10th anniversary of my election as President of the World Taekwondo Federation.

I cannot believe that 10 years have already passed.

Over the past decade, together we achieved many accomplishments. Today, taekwondo is considered the martial art that has most successfully transformed itself into a modern sport known for dynamic, viewer-friendly, and transparent competitions.

Taekwondo has secured its firm position in the Olympic program through the year 2020. Taekwondo is included in almost all multi-sport games. Taekwondo has reached out to more people than ever thanks to our introduction of the World Poomsae Taekwondo Championships and World Para-Taekwondo Championships.

All of this has been possible thanks to your vigorous support and dedication.

One of the greatest assets of taekwondo has been its universality. That is the same philosophy that the IOC aspires to through the Olympic Movement.

In recent years, we have focused on effecting positive changes for taekwondo, to become a more globalized sport. At the same time, we have also focused on retaining our status as a core Olympic sport.

Now, I would like to pay more attention to our contributions. I would like the WTF to become a role model for other international federations. The initiation of the WTF’s Sport Peace Corps is one of the ways we’re doing this.

The WTF is also doing its best to place taekwondo on the official program of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Achieving “A Better World Through Taekwondo” will be one of our top goals for the next 10 years. We must again work hard, together, to fulfill this mission.

I would like to thank each of you for your continued support. I would like to thank you for your friendship. And I would like to thank you for being a member of the global taekwondo family.

Thank you.