There are two C.S. Kim's in the area. Chun Sik Kim and Chung Su Kim. I had trained under the latter for nearly 12 years. My father trained under him for nearly 20 years. A few years ago, a large portion of his instructors, schools, and students left him to get away from the greed and the politics. He's suing them for the fourth time (three lawyers and three judges so far have told him he has nothing to sue for). We were with that group for a bit while we started our own school and got things going for ourselves.
I can't speak about Chun Sik Kim, who also has a Kim's Karate organization in PA, but Chung Su Kim's schools are known in this area as McDojang. I see C.S. Kim and his sons around once in a while. They were at a street fair in our town recently performing. From the looks of it, they're still teaching the same stuff. They have a few bong hyung, no applications, just movements. Now that I'm studying Kobujutsu and learning more about the bo, I see how lacking the old bong hyung C.S. Kim taught me really are.
I'm not trying to offend you J.T. But with my 12 years and my fathers 20, I'm pretty sure we weren't in at "the wrong time". And two decades is more than enough to get past an "impression". I am thankful for what Chong Su Kim taught me when I was younger. It was a pleasure to travel to Korea with him when I was a child. I have some good memories from my training at Kim's Karate. But it truly was amazing when I discovered how much more there was to the martial arts than the narrow vision that's shared at his schools.
I think everybody speaks depending of the way things developed for himself. We had a bad experience with WTSDA politics, but I still don't think or say bad things about Jae Chul Shin...
My school is under Chong Su Kim system. We affiliated with Him a year ago.
We decided to stay with Him because we saw very different and good things.
We have been members of ITF, WSTDA, WMDKTSD, and a few other. Most of them are more Tae Kwon Do than TSD, nothing related to true TSD.
We liked GM Kim because he is the opposite of a Mc Dojang, he does not sell ranks or certificates. I don't quite understand why you say that but I respect you opinion.
Chong Su Kim is going to come to see us training, to certify our ranks, and more important, to MEET Us. Nobody has done the same for us in the past, only Jae Chul Shin. It seems nobody cares about schools with less than 500 students ($$$), but Kim does care and He is going to travel from PA to Mexico with 7 of His senior members only to meet us, test two 3rd Dan BB and all of the gup members.
My Sah Bom Nim is a 4th Dan, 22 years experience in TSD (He is not easily impressed). He was examined and re-certified for his 4th Dan. The test was done in 4 days, very hard.
He says GM Kim is a very different master. He is not interested in money as all of the other we know are. I asked twice about a set of videos and some merchandise from his webpage, got no answer (it was before we affiliated with him). Now I know He does not sell anything to somebody he doesn't know.
He is widely respected, has several magazine covers and is member of the hall of fame of Black Belt Magazine and some others.
I am going to meet Him personally on march, when I will submit my 3rd Dan testing to Him. So, I will have a pretty good idea about Him.
Regards.