Korea -- The sole North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Chang Ung, said Sunday that a merger of the two world governing bodies of taekwondo would help the sport remain an Olympic event.
Chang, concurrently head of the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) run by North Korea, came here on Friday for a meeting with Choue Chung-won, head of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) that has been managed by South Korean officials.
"The merger of the two bodies will boost the popularity of taekwondo around the world and solidify the status of the martial art in the Olympic Games in the future," Chang said in a rare interview with a local TV station.
The Korean martial art, facing challenges from other combative sports, narrowly escaped elimination from the list of Olympic events in a vote of the IOC general assembly in 2004.
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