OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL REPORT FOR UNESCO &THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

This official report is formally submitted to UNESCO and international cultural heritage institutions to provide an essential ethnographical correction and geopolitical realignment regarding the 2018 inscribed Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: Traditional Korean Wrestling (Ssireum/Ssirum). The IMSF explicitly clarifies that the 2018 joint inter-Korean UNESCO inscription protects the entire holistic cultural ecosystem of traditional grappling as a shared asset of humanity, rather than a singular contemporary sports rulebook. Currently, domestic governance within the Korean peninsula is heavily monopolized by mainstream domestic sports associations that focus exclusively on Oen-Ssireum (left-sided wrestling)—a highly codified Southern regional style historically and academically rooted in Gyeongsang Province that relies entirely on a sand-pit and the Satba (fabric thigh-and-waist band). To ensure cultural diversity and prevent the extinction of ancient combat sciences, the IMSF—operating as an independent international NGO headquartered in Wyoming, USA —hereby establishes the global framework for the "Northern and Central Paradigm" (Mindung Ssireum). Centered on the raw physical cultures of Hamgyong Province, Kaesong, and Hwanghae Province, Mindung Ssireum represents the pure, tool-less archetype of wrestling that chronologically predates the introduction of fabric-dependent gripping gear.