US North Korea Goodwill Tour

The tour brought the North Korean Taekwondo Demonstration Team to the United States for the first time. The team traveled to five major cities in the U.S. and performed. Please find more information about the historical tour at http://usnktkd.com/. This tour was the first of its kind and brought together everyday citizens of North Korea and the United States, teaching both countries’ citizens that they could be friends and brothers.

One of the team members, 21-year-old Sun Hui Kim, pictured below, showed Americans her overwhelming strength during a performance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In an attempt to break two 2-inch cement blocks, Sun Hui fell hard on her elbow, unable to break the blocks. The crowd gasped from the thud her bones made against the unbroken cement. Slowly, Sun Hui stood up, rocking her body back and forth and breathing deep with her chest, she sweetly smiled and held up her index finger, telling everyone in the audience “Give me one more chance.” The crowd watched as the silent girl gathered her strength, leapt up in the air and brought her entire body down behind her elbow, crushing through the cement blocks. The crowd rose to their feet and cheered.

Sun Hui went on to perform the entire show that night with a broken elbow, but no one in the audience knew. When asked after why she had continued on despite a broken elbow, Sun Hui’s pale face looked somber as she held back tears. She said that she had seen her country’s flag, with the flag of the U.S. and she wanted to have the respect of the people of North Korea, the people of the U.S. and that she wanted to honor her family. She said it did not matter that her body was broken, all that mattered was the connection now that was forming between the citizens of the U.S. and North Korea.

By TaeKwonDo Times Magazine

For more info visit usnktkd.com