South Korea, which globally popularized the martial art form of taekwondo, is waking up to find North Korea has already moved to register the sport on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List. A technical advisory body is soon expected to recommend registration of "Taekwon-Do, traditional martial art in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" for North Korea's solo application, submitted in March 2024. The final decision will be made in Xiamen, China, at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 5. If finalized, Seoul may be left scrambling to register taekwondo on its own. It does not have to be that way. The martial art has shared roots that predate the division of the two Koreas. There is already a precedent for joint registration, with both North and South Korea successfully collaborating on the 2018 registration of "ssireum" — a traditional Korean form of wrestling — on the UNESCO list. With only about one month remaining before the meeting in Xiamen, South Korea should revive the dor