j. t. park was born in 1943 or 1944 in korea. he began training in the martial arts as a child, starting with boxing before moving on to judo and then taekwondo. from 1965 to 1967, park directed military taekwondo training in vietnam. he emigrated to canada where he met his future wife, linda, in toronto in 1970. in 1984, park was ranked 8th "dan" in the itf. he founded his own organisation, the global taekwon-do federation (gtf), on 14 june 1990—the year after his departure from the itf due to north–south korean political issues. park was based in mississauga until his death in 2002.