(Reporter Kim Min-jeong)= The International Mindung Ssireum Federation (IMSF HQ, Wyoming, USA), led by Founder & President Junho Song, has officially secured a monumental historical archive validating the pre-war lineage and cultural sovereignty of Mindung Ssireum (beltless traditional folk wrestling) in the northern regions of the Korean Peninsula.
On March 21, hosted by the Gaeseong Cultural Arts Research Institute—an affiliate of the Gaeseong Citizens Association (a prominent North Korean defected/displaced lineage organization)—an intensive oral history interview and physical culture investigation was conducted.
President Junho Song, who concurrently serves as the Secretary General of the North Korean Provinces Sports Association in South Korea, personally interviewed Mr. Sang-eun Lee, a 94-year-old elder originally from Gaeseong. The investigation successfully documented rare, firsthand testimonies regarding the technical frameworks and communal transmission of Mindung Ssireum in the Gaeseong region during the Japanese colonial era.
This landmark academic investigation was strictly supervised by Dr. Do-hee Nam (Ph.D. in Physical Education, Soongsil University), who served as the Chief Research Academic for the project, ensuring the highest level of ethnographical and historical verification.
The successful documentation and its profound implications for the safeguarding of endangered Korean cultural heritage were officially featured and publicized in the printed edition of the Unrecovered Gyeonggi-do Provincial Newspaper (미수복경기도민회보).
“This archive serves as an irrefutable legal and historical anchor for IMSF,” stated President Junho Song. We are integrating this data directly into our annual state report for the National Heritage Administration of Korea under the UNESCO safeguarding guidelines.”
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