Skip to content
Sliding scale and full scholarships: no child is turned away for cost →Call 425.931.2582

The method's origin

Grand Master Won Kuk Kim

Sixty years of martial arts mastery. Thirty years of direct practice with the children who needed it most.

Grand Master Won Kuk Kim standing with hands clasped beside the arched window and weapon rack of the academy
Photo: TRUETH Foundation

Biography

Grand Master Kim is the son of Supreme Grandmaster Bok Man Kim, one of the founding originators of Taekwondo in Korea. Where most martial artists inherit one branch, he spent a lifetime taking ten of them back to the shared root: what the body is doing, why the movement was built that way, and what the breath is doing underneath it.

The household

Trained from age two by his father, Supreme Grandmaster Bok Man Kim, one of the founding originators of Taekwondo in Korea. Training was not part of the day, it was the day.

Hong Kong

Lived for years in a household his father ran like a monastery, where masters came to be trained and stayed. He learned the arts firsthand rather than secondhand, which is the difference between knowing a technique and knowing why it exists.

Training the trainers

Continued his father's work, training other masters who went on to open schools, and instructing military and law enforcement in the United States and Hong Kong.

The turn to children

He set that work down to teach children instead, and built the methodology that became TRUETH Jin Sun Do. He runs a small school in Woodinville and has always treated this as an act of service rather than a business.

Asked why a master of his standing was teaching children rather than militaries, he answered that it was what he was supposed to do.

What he built

TRUETH Jin Sun Do unifies Hapkido, Aikido, Kenpo, Taekwondo, Karate, Thai Boxing, Kung Fu, Judo, Ninjutsu, and Gumdo into one methodology built around regulation rather than combat. It pairs somatic movement with specific breathing patterns and emotional literacy practice, and it is delivered to children who in many cases have not been reached by anything else.

This is not a weekend certification. It is a lifetime of lived mastery, refined through decades of direct work with children, and it is the reason TRUETH exists as an organization rather than as one small room in Woodinville.

From the academy's own pages

The biography on the academy's website adds these details, in its own words: he was born in 1956 in Daejeon, South Korea, and trained under his father, Supreme Grand Master Bok Man Kim. The family moved to Hong Kong in 1968, and he continued studying under his father until 1985, when, per the biography, he set off on his own to the United States. In Master Kim's own words, recorded in a TRUETH conversation in 2026, he came to the United States in 1981. The academy's home page says he founded the Jungyae Moosul system in 1985, which the academy describes as comprehensive martial arts education.

The same biography says he has trained U.S. Army personnel, law enforcement officers and officers of the Hong Kong Police, and that he is a certified instructor of the National Law Enforcement Handgun Retention program. Read the academy's biography.

“While every style may on the surface appear different from all the others, their root theories and principles are all the same.”

Master Kim, on the academy's website

Then and now

Grand Master Won Kuk Kim in a navy suit and tie, arms crossed, smiling
Photo: TRUETH Foundation

Grand Master Kim in a suit

Front portrait of Grand Master Won Kuk Kim in his navy dobok
Photo: TRUETH Foundation

Grand Master Kim in his dobok at the Woodinville academy

In pictures

  1. Photo: TRUETH Foundation

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim in a suit, smiling, seated at a desk with a pen in hand

    First photograph1 of 9Next photograph
  2. Photo: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts (woodinvillekarate.com) · source

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim in a low kneeling stance, holding a flag weapon

  3. Photo: TRUETH Foundation

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim performing a form on the red mats

  4. Photo: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts (woodinvillekarate.com) · source

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim holding a kick shield for young students in class

  5. Photo: TRUETH Foundation

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim laughing in the academy, in a navy dobok

  6. Photo: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts (woodinvillekarate.com) · source

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim bracing a kick shield as a student lands a jumping strike

  7. Photo: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts (woodinvillekarate.com) · source

    Black and white photo of Grand Master Won Kuk Kim holding a target as a young student kicks, the class watching

  8. Photo: TRUETH Foundation

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim in a martial arts stance on the red mats

  9. Photo: TRUETH Foundation

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim standing with hands clasped beside an arched window and weapon rack

    Previous photograph9 of 9Last photograph

On video

TRUETH explainer: Meet Grand Master Kim

Meet Grand Master Won Kuk Kim at the TRUETH academy in Woodinville, Washington. Master Kim has practiced martial arts for more than sixty years and has spent more than thirty of them teaching neurodivergent children in Greater Seattle. TRUETH Jin Sun Do brings together structured breathing, martial arts movement and emotional literacy. Children with and without a diagnosis train side by side. Classes serve children ages 5 to 17. Start with a conversation, then come watch a class. Scholarships come first.

Read the transcript

Meet Grand Master Won Kuk Kim at the TRUETH academy in Woodinville, Washington. Master Kim has practiced martial arts for more than sixty years and has spent more than thirty of them teaching neurodivergent children in Greater Seattle. TRUETH Jin Sun Do brings together structured breathing, martial arts movement and emotional literacy. Children with and without a diagnosis train side by side. Classes serve children ages 5 to 17. Start with a conversation, then come watch a class. Scholarships come first.

Photo: TRUETH Foundation

Start with a conversation
What is Jungyae Moosul?. Video: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts on YouTube. Loads from youtube-nocookie.com when you press play.
Watch on YouTube: What is Jungyae Moosul?
Grandmaster Won Kuk Kim performing the form Yu Gang Kwon. Video: Jungyae Moosul on YouTube. Loads from youtube-nocookie.com when you press play.
Watch on YouTube: Grandmaster Won Kuk Kim performing the form Yu Gang Kwon

Family tree and lineage

Every line below names its source. Where we could not find one, we left it out. Students are not listed here.

The Jungyae Moosul World emblem: three linked swirls in a red and black circle
Emblem: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts · source

His father and teacher

Grand Master

  • Grand Master Won Kuk Kim

    Born 1956 in Daejeon. Founded the Jungyae Moosul system (1985, per the academy's home page). Leads the Woodinville academy.

    Grand Master Won Kuk Kim in a suit, smiling, seated at a desk with a pen in hand
    Photo: TRUETH Foundation
    Close portrait of Grand Master Won Kuk Kim with a gentle smile
    Photo: TRUETH Foundation

    Source: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts: Our History; Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts: home page, Who is Master Kim?

His sons

Students of his who lead schools

  • Grand Master Michael Davis

    Personally trained by Grand Master Won Kuk Kim from 1990; leads Jungyae Martial Arts of Kirkland.

    Source: Jungyae Martial Arts of Kirkland

  • Grand Master Brad Shipp

    Trained in Jungyae Moosul under Grand Master Won Kuk Kim from 1995; leads Complete Martial Arts in Roseland, New Jersey.

    Source: Complete Martial Arts, Roseland NJ

  1. 1934

    Bok Man Kim is born on December 3.

    Source: Wikipedia: Kim Bok Man; 위키백과: 김복만 (무술가)

  2. 1941

    At seven, Bok Man Kim begins training in taekkyon, a Korean martial art.

    Source: Wikipedia: Kim Bok Man; 위키백과: 김복만 (무술가)

  3. 1956

    Won Kuk Kim is born in Daejeon, South Korea, and trains in traditional Korean martial arts under his father.

    Source: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts: Our History

  4. 1962 to 1964

    In Malaysia, Bok Man Kim helps General Choi Hong-hi develop fifteen taekwondo patterns.

    Source: Wikipedia: Kim Bok Man

  5. 1968

    The Kim family moves to Hong Kong, where Won Kuk Kim keeps studying under his father.

    Source: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts: Our History

  6. 1981

    In Master Kim's own words, he comes to the United States: "I came to United States in 1981." The academy biography gives 1985.

    Source: Grand Master Won Kuk Kim, recorded TRUETH conversation, 2026; Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts: Our History

  7. 1985

    Per the academy's home page, he founds the Jungyae Moosul system.

    Source: Jungyae Moosul Martial Arts: home page, Who is Master Kim?

  8. 1990

    Michael Davis joins the Jungyae academy in Kirkland and is personally trained by Grand Master Won Kuk Kim. He later takes over the founder's school.

    Source: Jungyae Martial Arts of Kirkland

  9. 1995

    Brad Shipp moves to Seattle to train in Jungyae Moosul under Grand Master Won Kuk Kim.

    Source: Complete Martial Arts, Roseland NJ

  10. 1997

    Brad Shipp opens his first studio, in Woodinville.

    Source: Complete Martial Arts, Roseland NJ

  11. 2014

    Master Kim's federation channel publishes his demonstration of the form Yu Gang Kwon, and his son Jun Ho Kim's demonstrations hosted by Grand Master Shipp.

    Source: Jungyae Moosul (YouTube): Grandmaster Won Kuk Kim, Yu Gang Kwon; Jungyae Moosul (YouTube): Jungyae Demonstrations for Hollywood Film

  12. 2018

    Supreme Grand Master Bok Man Kim awards Michael Davis his 8th-degree black belt on July 22.

    Source: Jungyae Martial Arts of Kirkland

  13. 2021

    Bok Man Kim dies on August 14, at 86.

    Source: Wikipedia: Kim Bok Man; 위키백과: 김복만 (무술가)

Elsewhere on the web

Grand Master Won Kuk Kim | TRUETH Foundation