A good-will trip to North-Korea in 1966 caused General Choi to fall in disgrace
in the eyes of the South-Koreans. Choi resigned as president of the K.T.A. and
founded the I.T.F. on March, the 22nd of that same year. The headquarters of ITF
were established in Canada.
ITF started concentrating on the forms developed by General Choi, while the KTA
(which later, on May 28, 1973, became the WTF) concentrated on the Palgwe's.
Later the WTF abandoned the Palgwe's and started concentrating on Taeguks.
Slowly, the WTF emphasis turned to sparring. This is also the reason why a lot
of people rather call (WTF) Taekwondo a martial sport than a Martial Art.
The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) is a smaller organization, and has many
similarities to the ITF. The ATA has a copyright on the forms of the organization,
so these forms cannot be used on competitions by non-members. There are many
organizations, but the three mentioned above have the most members.
ITF practices the so-called 'semi-contact' part of Taekwondo, while WTF practices
the so-called 'full-contact' part. ITF focuses more on the traditional way of taekwondo.
Since the break-up, there have been many attempts to reunite WTF and ITF, so-far
without success. There probably will never be a union within Taekwondo.