Tae Kwon Do Times, March 1998

Press · August 5, 2025

Scanned pages from the March 1998 issue of Tae Kwon Do Times. Grand Master Guak has been featured on the cover of this international martial arts magazine three times.

The March 1998 cover named Grand Master Guak with three other grandmasters. Inside, Dale S. Peck interviewed all four in “Ko Am Mu Do: A Traditional Art For A Modern World.” They were Yung Ho Jun of Tampa, Jin Chung of West Palm Beach, Guak of Fort Myers and Jun Kim of Fort Lauderdale.

Together they spent three years building Ko Am Mu Do. It joins Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido and Korean weapons training with breathing and ki work. Guak says students, especially black belts, wanted more weapons, ground fighting and self-defense. The first Ko Am Mu Do seminar was held in Fort Myers in March 1997. That fall, Guak and Chung traveled to South Korea to share it with Korean masters.

Grand Master Jun told Peck that they had not made up a new art. In his words, Ko Am Mu Do brings back together more than 2,000 years of Korean martial arts, taught with courtesy, respect and ki training.

Every belt has the same kinds of tests: a form, self-defense, kicking combinations, weapons, Hap Ki Sul, breathing, defense against a weapon, board breaking and an oral or written test. Guak said even a beginner learns a self-defense move on the first day.

Weapons start at white belt with nunchucks. Short sticks, medium sticks and a bamboo sword come next, then the long stick at purple belt. Students begin the sword at brown belt. Weapons training goes on all the way to fifth dan. The red, blue and yellow of the Ko Am Mu Do colors stand for heaven, earth and the way of human life.