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`The First Asian Taekwondo Championships will be held in Seoul from October 18 through 20, 1974. More than 150 athletes from 11 Asian countries are to vie in the three-day contest. A unique art of self-defense developed in Korea, Taekwondo has a long history dating back to the Koguryo period. Hwarang of the Silla Dynasty, a select group of youths who excelled in virtues, bravery and martial arts, practiced Taekwondo as part of their combat techniques and as a means of their physical and spiritual traning. Today, Taekwondo as a highly developed self-defense art is fast becoming an international sport. Taekwondo was adopted as a regular event of the annual National Athletic Meet in 1962 when the 43rd national Olympiad was held. On November 30, 1972, Kukkiwon, a central systematic development of Taekwondo technique and art, was opened. Kukkiwon was the site for the First World Taekwondo Championships held from May 25 to 27, 1973. May 28 of the same year saw the inauguration of the World Taekwondo Federation in Seoul, which formally established Korea as the home of Taekwondo. The Ministry of Communications, hoping that Taekwondo, our national sport, will gain increasing worldwide popularity and thereby help us further enhance our national prestige, is issuing this commemorative stamp to give the Championships wide publicity at home and abroad.`