Mr. Soo-Nam Park was bestowed with a high honor: The Youngsan University in Pusan/Korea made him their chair professor. With the chair professorship, the WTF Vice President can add another impressive decoration to his vita. Until October he was honorary professor at Youngsan University and he also obtains an honorary doctorate of Konkuk University in Seoul.

A chair professorship is the highest category of professorship, which enables universities to appoint top-class specialists from abroad. The universities expect the chair professor to give lectures or attend conferences at “his” university. Mr. Soo-Nam Park is only the second member of the Taekwondo-family to be awarded a chair professorship, the first being Mr. Jhoon Rhee.

The awarding ceremony took place on October 27 last year and attracted much attention in Korea. The host, Mr. Gu-Wuck Bu, President of Youngsan University took every effort to organize a wonderful ceremony. Among the numerous guests of honor was the former WTF- and IOC-Vice-President Mr. Un-Young Kim who also held a speech which he does rarely and which was an even greater honor for those present. Other guests of honor were Mr. Pil-Yul Shin, President of Samsung Electronics and at the same time President of the Korean Track and Field Association, Mr. Man-Soo Lee, President of the Korean Broadcasting Company KNN and Mr. Seung-Tae Kim, President of the Pusan Taekwondo Federation.
The newly awarded chair professor Soo-Nam Park expressed his joy about his new position: “This is a great honor for me and an excellent chance, to inspire the young academics at Youngsan University and to give them ideas for their own academic career.”