By Samar Yahya

RIYADH — Members of Kukkiwon demonstration team for Taekwondo visited the Kingdom for the 3rd time to promote Korean Martial Art, Taekwondo, last week. The visit came as part of their journey throughout the Middle East. Kukkiwon team had visited Dubai and Oman, the Kingdom and headed to Kuwait and Qatar.

Most of the 21 members, Kukkiwon demonstration team have been practicing Taekwondo for more than 10 years. Attended by Korean ambassador Jo Byung Wook, the performances took place in Hayat Mall, Riyadh, showing off their marvelous skills to the audience.

The demonstration team of Kukkiwon performs all over the world, showing kicks, flips and tricks to the audiences. They had participated in the contest in the USA (The World’s Best), and were highly praised for their stunning skills.

Taekwondo aims to develop not only self-defense skills, but also mind and spirits of the trainees such as perseverance, courtesy and self-control. It focuses on training the mindset, rather than attacking others.

Taekwondo has been an official sport of the Olympics since 2000 in Sydney, and it will be an official sport in the Paralympics as well from 2022, in Hangzhou.

Korea has unique deep-rooted tradition in dance, music, painting, homes, crafts, cuisine, clothing, and Korea would contribute to Vision 2030 to a great extent; especially to realize “creation of a vibrant society with fulfilling lives”.

The culture industry in Korea nowadays is not only growing domestically but also thrilling and satisfying various customers all over the world including Saudi Arabia, and the brand power of K-culture, such as K-pop, K-drama and K-beauty grows steadily.

The Embassy of the Republic of Korea holds various kinds of events such as k-pop contest and Korean Speech Contest, and more events like Korean Movie Night and Korean handcraft class are to come in December.