In light of South Korean President Kim, Young Sam's stated push for Korea's position as a team player in globalism, it is particularly out of place. A music teacher does not teach only the music produced in his homeland, nor does an art teacher only teach the techniques of his own country's artists. In other fields, teachers take the masters' works and ideas as the foundation for teaching basics. A martial art lives and grows through the deeds of its practitioners. It belongs to the artists who practice it, not to a single country.
All art is apolitical, except to politicians who try to make it political to suit their own ends.
To make art property, tie it to political organizations, to desire for power or influence, to make it fodder for politicians' agendas, is to kill its essence. The benefits of training in martial arts are to be found in the process of training, not in attainment of this belt level or that political membership. Similarly, the value of the art is in the practice of it, and the teaching of it. If people haven't learned the dangers of nationalism in this turbulent century, then I am very sad, and ashamed. If some of these people would stop political posturing, trade their business suits for a dobok, and sweat in the dojang, more people would benefit.