Whoa there big guy.... Be gentle with me, I am a CMA guy that use to be a TKD guy many many years ago (pre-Olympic) and I am not aware of the issues that can arise from questions or making statements in KMA. Back when I did TKD I was to busy doing TKD to care and like I said it was a long long time ago
What Mr. Morgan is implying is that a large number of people, mostly those
NOT practicing Korean Martial Arts (KMA), believe that the vast majority of KMA are, indeed, Japanese in origin.
The commonly held logic among those promoting this theory is that KMA's had largely disappeared due to the proximity of China and the ascendancy of Confusionism which places martial practice at a very low moral level. Alternately (again), there are those promoting this theory who accept that KMA did survive into the 20th Century, though somewhat fringe and out of the mainstream. Both, however, agree that the Japanese conquest of Korean spelled a low point for Korean culture. After the conquest the Japanese administrators in Korea spent a huge amount of effort to suppress and destroy Korean culture, supplanting it with Japanese culture. Large numbers of Korean books on history, philosophy, art, and general culture were destroyed. Artifacts of cultural behavior were banned and rules enacted to force Japanese culture onto the Koreans.
Promoters of the "KMAs are really Japanese Martial Arts (KMAs)" point out the well documented fact that this cultural purge extended to martial arts as well. All practice of KMA was outlawed and exponents of JMAs were imported and Dojos set up for the tutelage of JMAs.
This practice continued, essentially, unabated until the defeat of the Japanese in WWII.
Following WWII and the exit of Japan from Korea there was a groundswell of nationalistic sentiment and pride in Korea accompanied with the desire to excise all things Japanese. At this period we see a reinvigoration of KMA and the emergence of most of the recognized KMA organizations. The independent Kwans/Dojangs emerged, eventually to be joined into Tae Kwon Do by Gen. Choi, Gumdo, Hapkido, Tang Soo Do, etc. all began to be recognized on the Korean martial stage.
The problem is, that many of these arts are undeniably, ADMITTEDLY, influenced (at the minimum) by JMAs. Hapkido's founder, Choi, claimed that HKD is based largely from Aiki Ju Jitsu. Tang Soo Do's (TSD) founder, Hung Kee, claims to have completely ripped off JMA Hyung (Kata) and plugged them directly into his art. Gumdo uses Kendo armour, shinai, and rules. TKD standardizes on JMA style uniforms and rankings. You get the idea.
However, most of the emerging KMA's claim a non-Japanese origin. TKD and TSD claim combined Korean and Chinese origins, for instance. But, with very few exceptions (Tae Kyon, for instance), it all
LOOKS so JMA. Add this together with the cultural genocide that Japan was attempting and the nationalistic (almost Jingoistic) Korean sentiments and it's easy to make at least a superficial case that most/all modern KMA's are really rebranded JMA's.
On the other side of the coin, those who reject the theory that KMA = JMA point out that Korea is a pretty big place when you get right down to it and that, despite their best efforts, the Japanese would not have been able to actually root out all native martial arts, particularly those in geographically remote areas, away from population and manufacturing centers. Further, they point out the quite natural tendency for exponents of banned arts to either "go underground" or simply flee the country, seeking asylum in some other nation, to return later, after the Japanese had finally left. They explain the Japanese imports, such as uniforms, rules, and ranking structure, as simply cherry-picking components which they like or seem to work well, adding them to the existing KMA systems without diluting the original arts.
This is the conflict in a nutshell. Naturally there is a lot more too it and lots of history, dates, and research on both sides in support of their theories (most of which I've forgotten now) but that's the basics.
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk