MARTIAL ARTS from North Korea

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary North Korean Martial Arts of all time. This list of famous North Korean Martial Arts is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Choi Hong Hi (1918 - 2002)

With an HPI of 56.95, Choi Hong Hi is the most famous North Korean Martial Arts.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages on wikipedia.

Choi Hong-hi (Korean: 최홍희; 9 November 1918 – 15 June 2002) was a South Korean Army general, and martial artist who was an important figure in the history of the Korean martial art of Taekwondo, albeit controversial due to his introduction of taekwondo to North Korea. Choi is regarded by many as the "Founder of Taekwon-Do"—most often by organizations belonging to the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), the first international federation for Taekwondo, which he founded. Others, such as World Taekwondo, portray Choi as either an unimportant or a dishonorable figure in taekwondo history because of his defection to North Korea, whether by omitting him from their versions of taekwondo history or through explicit statements, due to the aforementioned controversy.

2. Pak Chol-min (1982 - )

With an HPI of 27.68, Pak Chol-min is the 2nd most famous North Korean Martial Arts.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Pak Chol-min (Korean pronunciation: [pak̚.tsʰʌl.min]; born 21 September 1982) is a North Korean judoka. He won the bronze medal in the Men's 66 kg at the 2008 Summer Olympics.