Hwang Kwang-sung
founder - trainer
🌍 Korean-American🥊 ITF Secretary-General, UITF founder, General Choi's Special Assistant, Vietnam Tiger Division🎂 13-09-1942- 29-12-2025
Hwang Kwang-sung (13 September 1942 - 29 December 2025) was one of the most respected Korean Taekwon-Do pioneers in the world. On 8 December 1997 General Choi Hong Hi promoted him to 9th Dan Grandmaster (certificate number K-9-1) - sharing that historic day with American pioneer GM Charles Sereff. He was the first Korean residing in the United States to receive that rank directly from the founder.
He began martial arts training at age eleven in Daegu, South Korea. After studying Political Science he graduated from the South Korean army (ROKA) officer academy. During the Vietnam War (1968-1969), Captain Hwang was deployed as chief military instructor to the elite Korean Tiger Division - simultaneously training units of the US Army, US Marines and the Vietnamese army. He received high military decorations from both Korea and Vietnam. He left active service in 1970/1971 as company commander of the 26th Infantry Division, informally known as the official Taekwon-Do Division.
In 1971 he emigrated to the United States, becoming one of the first to teach accredited Taekwon-Do at an American college, and opened his first dojang in 1972. Within the ITF he rose to its highest levels: in April 1994 General Choi personally appointed him Special Assistant - his official spokesman and right hand. He served as Secretary-General of the ITF and chaired the Promotion and Merger Committees. From 1990 he directed the training and selection of US national junior and senior teams for official ITF World Championships.
To protect General Choi's legacy and original philosophy after the founder's death, he founded the KoreAmerica Taekwon-Do Union (KATU), expanding it in 2004 into the Unified International Taekwon-Do Federation (UITF) - an independent global federation dedicated to the pure original system.
In March 2021 he was inducted into the Official TaeKwon-Do Hall of Fame with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Grandmaster Hwang Kwang-sung passed away in late 2025 at age 83 in Farmington, Connecticut.
He began martial arts training at age eleven in Daegu, South Korea. After studying Political Science he graduated from the South Korean army (ROKA) officer academy. During the Vietnam War (1968-1969), Captain Hwang was deployed as chief military instructor to the elite Korean Tiger Division - simultaneously training units of the US Army, US Marines and the Vietnamese army. He received high military decorations from both Korea and Vietnam. He left active service in 1970/1971 as company commander of the 26th Infantry Division, informally known as the official Taekwon-Do Division.
In 1971 he emigrated to the United States, becoming one of the first to teach accredited Taekwon-Do at an American college, and opened his first dojang in 1972. Within the ITF he rose to its highest levels: in April 1994 General Choi personally appointed him Special Assistant - his official spokesman and right hand. He served as Secretary-General of the ITF and chaired the Promotion and Merger Committees. From 1990 he directed the training and selection of US national junior and senior teams for official ITF World Championships.
To protect General Choi's legacy and original philosophy after the founder's death, he founded the KoreAmerica Taekwon-Do Union (KATU), expanding it in 2004 into the Unified International Taekwon-Do Federation (UITF) - an independent global federation dedicated to the pure original system.
In March 2021 he was inducted into the Official TaeKwon-Do Hall of Fame with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Grandmaster Hwang Kwang-sung passed away in late 2025 at age 83 in Farmington, Connecticut.