Grandmaster Kim

Grandmaster Chong S. Kim, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost instructors and practitioners of the Korean martial art of Hapkido. He was born in Seoul, South Korea and has practiced Hapkido for nearly 60 years. He has attained the highly desired rank of Ninth Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and is widely known for his enthusiastic devotion to detail in his teachings, with an emphasis on timing and precision in the execution of Hapkido techniques.

Grandmaster Kim began the years of study that led to his eminence in Hapkido when just a young boy. As a youth in Seoul, South Korea, he attended Seoul Technical High School and graduated from Hong Ig University, majoring in Political Science.

In Seoul, the name Chong S. Kim became famous among the citizenry as the epitome of Hapkido. He owned and operated a total of three schools, two of which were in the Yong San Ku District (the Sam Kag Ji branch and the Nam Young Dong branch) and another branch in Young Dong Po Ku District (the Bong Chun Dong branch).

Grandmaster Kim was part of a select group of twelve Hapkido practitioners who toured Asia, giving martial art demonstrations and instructional lessons in places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Vietnam. With an invitation and recommendation by the Korean C.I.A. he and his elite team of Hapkido masters stayed on in Vietnam to provide specialized instruction in Hapkido techniques to both the United States Green Berets and C.I.A. personnel in South Vietnam.

Grandmaster Kim also supplemented his extensive training in Hapkido by studying at Dong Ue Acupuncture School where he became proficient in acupuncture, joint manipulation and bone setting.

In 1973 he chose to bring his outstanding abilities to the United States of America. Grandmaster Kim owns and operates a school in Alhambra, California. There are four additional branches of Jang Mu Won Hapkido located throughout Southern California.