Korean War Era Styles

[Skip Cooper]

There has been alot of discussion on MT about the styles of KMA before and after the WWII era. Most of what I have read (and I have yet to read all of them), seems to be about South Korea. I have often wondered what the armed forces of North Korea learned and utilized on their side of the struggle during the Korean Conflict. I have heard stories from my grandfather and other veterens of this war and they have always spoke to the fighting skill and feriocity of their foes. I am sure alot of this stems from a people who have been at war for generations, but I am always interested in the technical data.

If anyone can help, much will be appreciated.

 

[rmclain]

There has been alot of discussion on MT about the styles of KMA before and after the WWII era. Most of what I have read (and I have yet to read all of them), seems to be about South Korea. I have often wondered what the armed forces of North Korea learned and utilized on their side of the struggle during the Korean Conflict. I have heard stories from my grandfather and other veterens of this war and they have always spoke to the fighting skill and feriocity of their foes. I am sure alot of this stems from a people who have been at war for generations, but I am always interested in the technical data.

If anyone can help, much will be appreciated.

I don't know of any specific name for a fighting system in North Korea during that time. They've used the term "Gyuck-sul," meaning offensive fighting technique/strategy for combat techniques in the past. After Choi Hong-hi visited they adopted his Taekwondo system.

I do know that the North Koreans were known for using head-butting techniques.

R. McLain

 

[TraditionalTKD]

That's one of the reasons why Gen. Choi lost favor with South Korea-going to North Korea and teaching them Tae Kwon Do. Think about it: N. Korea and S. Korea are enemies. Do you teach your enemy martial arts and risk him not using it against you? I don't think so. This is why, to many South Koreans, Gen. Choi is still considered a traitor.

 

[exile]

That's one of the reasons why Gen. Choi lost favor with South Korea-going to North Korea and teaching them Tae Kwon Do. Think about it: N. Korea and S. Korea are enemies. Do you teach your enemy martial arts and risk him not using it against you? I don't think so. This is why, to many South Koreans, Gen. Choi is still considered a traitor.

And the military TKD that Gen. Choi helped develop and train the ROK troops in wasn't exactly WTF foot tag. It was designed for killing applications by soldiers out of ammo or weaponless, under battlefield H2H conditions. A lot of emphasis on limb destruction, overpowereing striking attacks and head-twists (read: neck breaks). It was feared by the N. Koreans during the Korean War and the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. That was Gen. Choi's view of TKD... now imagine people learning that he was teaching that to their most-feared enemy... yes, it's hard to imagine that there wouldn't be many people who would see him as a dupe at best and a traitor at worst.

 

[exile]

BTW, Dakin Burdick makes the following observation in his 1997 JAMA paper:

Martial arts in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK; North Korea) probably disappeared after the communists took control in the 1950s. They were certainly gone by 1981 when Karl Nicolleti visited teh DPRK with a demonstration team led by Choi Hong-Hi and Chuck Sereff. Nicoletti reported that `the martial arts in general, and taekwondo in particular, are virtually unknown in North Korea...' The only martial art he could discover was an informal form of unarmed combat called kuksul (national art) that was practiced by the military. Private instruction in the martial arts would tend to support resistance to the state and, like the Japanese before them, the communists did not allow such resistance.