Secretary-General CHOI Donghwan, visited the 38th session of General Assembly of UNESCO, Paris, to back up the signature of the Agreement of the Centre to be put on the occasion of President PARK's visit to UNESCO

After completing her trip to Africa as Foreign Minister’s special envoy from the 5th to the 10th of November, the Secretary-General of the World Martial Arts Union (WoMAU), Mr. CHOI Donghwan (Ex-Ambassador) visited the UNESCO headquarters, Paris, by invitation from UNESCO to the 38th General Assembly 7 days from the 11th to the 17th of November. Secretary-General CHOI Donghwan took this opportunity to meet the staff of the Secretariat of UNESCO, Korean Ambassador and the staff of the Korean Delegation to UNESCO to ask for their cooperation so that the signing of the Korea-UNESCO Agreement regarding the International Centre of Martial Arts under the auspices of UNESCO (Category 2) could be put on the occasion of President PARK Geun-hye's visit to UNESCO scheduled on 1 December 2015 while he exchanged views to discuss ways to enhance cooperative relationships between WoMAU, UNESCO, and the NGOs.

Secretary-General, Mr. CHOI met with Mr. Julius Banda, Chief of Social and Human Sciences Sector, to ask for active support from UNESCO so that the Korea-UNESCO Agreement regarding the Centre can be signed on the occasion of President PARK's visit to UNESCO while he also shared views on supports for the establishment of the International Centre of Martial Arts as well as the activities of WoMAU, having a luncheon with Korean Ambassador to UNESCO, LEE Byonghyun, and Korean Ambassador to France MO Chul-min. The signing of the Agreement between Korea's Foreign Minister YUN Byung-se and the UNESCO Director General, Irina Bokova at the UNESCO headquarters ended up completing on 1 December 2015.

In addition, he met with Mr. Eric Falt, Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Public Information of the UNESCO Secretariat, Ms. Sabina Colombo, Chief, Desk for Intergovernmental and Non-Governmental Organizations, and the representatives of international NGOs to discuss ways to enhance cooperative relationships between WoMAU, UNESCO, and the NGOs. He also met Ms. Cecile Duvelle, Chief of Intangible Cultural Heritage Section, to express appreciation for the inscription of Taekkyeon as a Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage and requested for her support so that Korea's traditional wrestling could also be registered as an intangible cultural heritage with UNESCO.

During the visits, Secretary-General CHOI also visited the headquarters of the French Savate Federation, a member of WoMAU, to meet with Mr. Joel Dhumez, Chairman of the French Savate Federation and Vice Chairman of the World Savate Federation, and other executive members. There he discussed ways to enhance the international standing of WoMAU and promote cooperation between WoMAU and the French Savate Federation. Chairman Dhumez expressed his jubilation, stating that WoMAU had convinced UNESCO to recognize martial arts as a category of culture, thus making it possible to register martial arts as a cultural asset, and now has expanded its activities to the social and educational sectors, inducing the Korean government to host the UNESCO category II Center (International Centre of Martial Arts for Youth Development and Engagement). As a result of such inspirations from WoMAU, it recently had Savate registered as a cultural asset of France.