Han Bong-soo - Discovering Hapkido

Discovering Hapkido

Han and his friend, Seo Oh Choi, were both employed by the Hankuk Shil Up Company which assisted other companies in bidding on army surplus goods. Both had prior training in striking based martial arts, Choi in the Jidokwan taekwondo and Han in kwon bup and tae kyon. They joined Ji's Joongbooshijang hapkido dojang in 1958 to receive extra training in order to become bodyguards to Korean Labour Party presidential candidate Jun Jin-Han. When Jun withdrew his candidacy they both decided to continue their training in hapkido.

Han being older, a native of Seoul, and a senior student of Yong Sul Choi, assisted in promoting the first hapkido school in the country's capital city. In 1959, Han opened his own hapkido school in the Samgangji section of Seoul. Han became one of the teachers in the influential Korea Hapkido Association and taught people in both the Korean military and the Korean presidential guard. Eventually, he secured a position teaching martial arts to U.S. security personnel at the Osan American air force base where he taught for 6 years.

In 1967, during the Vietnam War, Han taught self-defense to hundreds of American and Korean military personnel as part of a demonstration team for the Korea Hapkido Association.