Father of Tae Kwon-Do from Costa Rica
Won-kun Yang Yu, born March 13, 1944, in Seoul, South Korea, the son of Mr. Heung Suk Yang and Ms. Bong Yung Yu. At the young age of 7 he began his learning of Tae Kwon-Do, a student of the GM. Jong Soo-hong who in turn was a student of the GM. Hwang Kee, founder of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, gets his first Dan Black Belt at age 10. He currently holds the degree of 7th Dan in Tae Kwon-Do, 6th Dan in Hapkido, 1st Dan in Judo and in the current year 2020 he was awarded by the authorities of the Costa Rican Federation of Taekwondo the 10th Honorary DAN.
Coming from Colombia, the Grand Master Won-kun Yang Yu arrived in Costa Rica in 1969 at the age of 25, affectionately known as "Professor Aquiles", he traveled to our country at the invitation of Shihan Orlando Madrigal, Father of National Judo , upon arrival he gets in touch with Shihan Sensei Shunichi Kobayashi Rokukawa (pioneer in Costa Rica of Karate Shingi Kai), thus initiating, thanks to his support, the teaching of Tae Kwon-Do (called Korean Karate at that time) in our country in 1970 and also creating the Taekwondo Institute of Costa Rica.
Grandmaster Yang directed the national representatives that participated in the I ITF World Championship in Canada 1974, as well as the II WTF World Championship in Korea 1975, it is worth noting the high level shown by our country in these presentations, where the admiration of other nations. The delegation he led in 1974 was made up of Guillermo Hoppe Marín, winner of the world jumping category (Tuimio Nopi Chagui) and Ricardo Cruz Sauma, whose participation was of a very high level.
In 1975 Costa Rica was successfully represented in the II WTF World Championship, selected by Ricardo Cruz Sauma, Jesús Adilio López Castillo, Alejandro Chacón Zumbado (First Black Belt of Costa Rica awarded by Professor Aquiles) and Guillermo Hoppe Marín, reaching third place with Alejandro Chacón Zumbado and seventh in the general classification by countries.
Currently the Grand Master Won-kun Yang Yu, has focused more on reading the Word of God, which he carries out together with the teaching of Tae Kwon-Do, the main project is the group of “Missionary Tae Kwon-Do Cristiano ”(Tae Kwon-Do Institute), in which Master Ricardo Cruz Sauma (Grand Master's former student) also participates, has also taken his message to various parts of the world where his teachings are very well received. Some of the main recognitions that Grandmaster Won-kung Yang holds are:
• Degree in Diplomacy and Spanish, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea.
• Professor of Spanish at the Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Colombia.
• Officer and Captain of the South Korean Army 7th Parachute Division.
• Founder of the Colombo-Korean Institute in Colombia.
• Founder of the Tae Kwon-Do Institute of Costa Rica (1970).
• Founder of the Tae Kwon-Do Institute in Miami.
• Professor of Tae Kwon-Do at the University of Costa Rica.
• Writer of the book "Tae Kwon-Do" University of Costa Rica,
Education Series No. 20. Rodrigo Facio University City 1973.
• Writer of several books on various Korean Martial Arts
• Director of the Tae Kwon-Do National Teams that participated in the I ITF World Championships 1974 (Canada), II WTF World Championships 1975 (South Korea), 1977 and 1979.
• Organizer of the first Tae Kwon-Do competitions in the country.
He currently resides with his family in Miami, Florida, United States.