Pyongyang, March 6 (KCNA) -- "Mu Ye Do Bo Tong Ji" is an old book on military-related martial arts as it systematized in a comprehensive way the martial arts movements which had been handed down in Korea for a long time.

The book with a preface written by Jong Jo, the 22nd king of the feudal Joson dynasty, was compiled at his instruction and printed in wood block in April 1790. It mainly shows the traditional martial arts movements of Korea such as various arts of hand-to-hand fight, fencing, spear and club, and horse riding, along with martial arts movements of neighboring countries, through pictures and explanation.

Kim Hong Do, a famous painter in those days, painted the pictures of the book.

President Kim Il Sung took a measure to find out all the national cultural heritages and preserve them under the control of the state during the Fatherland Liberation War. Thanks to this measure, the book was discovered in the area of Phyongan Province in 1952 and sent to the then state central library. It is now preserved at the Grand People's Study House.

The book is of weighty significance in studying the root and history of Taekwon-Do, the traditional martial arts of the DPRK, and its superiority as well as the martial arts of the East. UNESCO certified it as the Memory of the World Regional Register for Asia-Pacific in 2016 and the Memory of the World Regional Register in 2017. -0-