Kukkiwon’s Taekwondo demonstration team captivated Poland.

From September 5 to September 8, Kukkiwon and its Taekwondo demonstration team attended MSPO 2023 – International Defence Industry Exhibition held in Kielce, Poland which is considered as one of the 3 major defence exhibitions in Europe and showed the essence of Korea’s national martial art Taekwondo through a demonstration performance during the opening ceremony.

Ambassadors and national defence officials from around 30 nations and notable guests such as Polish President Andrzej Duda, Minister Eom Donghwan of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Korean Ambassador to Poland Lim Hoon-min and Kukkiwon President Lee Dong-sup attended the opening ceremony held on September 5. Korea attended the exhibition as the lead nation for the second time since. For the exhibition, Poland designates a lead nation every year and invites the nation for a congratulatory speech at the opening ceremony and for a joint seminar.

At the opening ceremony, Polish President Andrzej Duda applauded every time Kukkiwon’s demonstration team showed powerful and accurate poomsae and high-level breaks. After the demonstration, President Duda met with the demonstration team, praised the team for the performance and took a group photo. The audience members from various nations including the US, UK, France, Türkiye, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia also cheered and applauded loudly at such a high level of demonstration.

After the demonstration, Kukkiwon President Lee Dong-sup went up the stage and thanked the guests from all around the world for attending the exhibition. President Lee also presented President Duda a pine wood breaking board signed by the members of the demonstration team.

Also, by giving another great performance on the outdoor stage, the demonstration team again left people with a deep impression of Taekwondo.

MSPO 2023 is one of the 3 largest defence exhibitions in Europe and 614 companies from 33 nations participated this year.

“I am very pleased that we are able to globally promote the excellence of Korea’s defence industry as well as Taekwondo which is basically the first Hallyu content to become popular around the world. Kukkiwon and its demonstration team are always working to raise the status of Korea at the forefront of sports diplomacy” explained Kukkiwon President Lee Dong-sup.