Kwang Sung Hwang

Personal life

Kwang Sung Hwang was born in Taegu, Korea, in 1942. He started martial arts training at age eleven. After graduating with a degree in political science from Kyungpook National University, he joined the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) as a commissioned officer in 1964. In 1967 Hwang graduated from Korean Military International Certified Taekwon-Do School. In 1968–1969, he was one of the taekwondo instructors dispatched to Vietnam during the war. While in Vietnam, as a Captain in the ROKA, he taught taekwondo to the Korean Tiger Division, the Korean Army, US Army, US Marines, and Vietnamese Army. While in Vietnam, he received commendation medals from Korea and Vietnam. In 1971 he was service company commander of the 26th Infantry Division which was also known as the Taekwon-Do Division. Hwang has multiple children, his most notable being Mia Hwang, a teen beauty pageant queen. As of 2017, she hold the title of Miss Southern New England Junior

ITF career

Leaving his military career, Hwang was invited to the US and first taught a credited course at Manchester Community Technical College in 1971. He opened his first taekwondo school the following year. In 1974, Hwang graduated from the first International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) Instructors Course and Umpires Course hosted and taught by General Choi Hong Hi in Montreal, Canada. Hwang took students to train at General Choi's home in the early-mid 70's. In October 1976, he hosted General Choi Cup tournament. He subsequently started taking private lessons from General Choi in the 1980s after being promoted to seventh degree Master in taekwondo. He led the U.S. Team at the 8th ITF World Championships in Pyongyang at North Korea's Taekwondo Palace. He assisted General Choi in many seminars worldwide.

Hwang simultaneously served as special assistant to General Choi, official spokesman of the ITF, chairman of the ITF promotion and merger committees, and Secretary General of the ITF. 1997 was a monumental year for ITF and General Choi as he promoted three men to 9th degree that year with Grand Master Rhee Ki Ha promoted ub July 1997 followed by Grand Master Chuck Sereff and Grand Master KS Hwang in December 1997. He was one of only a handful of men promoted to 9th Dan by General Choi.