What are the belt colors in Taekwon-Do?

I saw someone asking a question online about the belts in Taekwon-Do.

They asked “What are the belt colors in Taekwondo?”

The answers that person received all said pretty much “it depends on the school”.

I gave my answer too, which I will post here. And elaborate on it a little more.

The first observation I have to make is that there are two styles of Taekwon-Do in the world.

One is the ITF style (International Taekwon-Do Federation) and the other is the WTF style (World Taekwondo Federation).

You might notice that I write them differently, in fact WTF calls itself Taekwondo, and ITF is Taekwon-Do. Putting and emphasis on the “Do”. The Do is the philosophical side of the art.

Living in korea for 7 years, I have trained with WTF guys often, and even worked as a Taekwon-Do teacher at WTF dojangs. I noticed that each school had different sets of belt colors, I could not understand how they all keep it organized between schools and within the WTF organization itself. How do they measure the parameters of belt colors and such. But I never asked about it much.

Apparently they take out or add belts all the time. To keep the progression of the children longer.

In other countries it seems to be the same case.

However in ITF Taekwon-Do, there has been since the beginning, a set of six colors from white to Black. This has never changed and it is the standard worldwide until today.

I have trained in ITF for over 20 years now. So I can give a simple and clear explanation about the belt colors for it. For WTF though, it is very confusing and hard to say what the official belts are nowadays.

WTF (World Taekwondo Federation - Kukkiwon)
Olympic Taekwondo Style

The style that is most spread out in South Korea and which is present at the olympics. It was formed in South Korea after the separation of North and South.

About their belt colors; It varies a lot.

There's many colors and variations between schools and the colors are there for somewhat random reasons.

From what I know, WTF used to have the same belts as ITF, but as time passed they changed it over and over. These days it's like a crazy salad of colors that changes from school to school.

I've seen kids wearing pink belts, I asked the teacher why they had a pink belt and the answer was "because it's pretty".

I believe currently this is the official set of belts for the WTF. but like I mentioned before, I have seen many other belt colors in Taekwondo Dojangs in Korea (including pink!).

ITF (International Taekwon-Do Federation - Traditional Taekwon-Do)
Martial art / Traditional Style / North korean Taekwon-Do

The original Taekwon-Do. Although it is both Northern and South Korean, it is considered by most South Koreans as the “North Korean Taekwon-Do”, the reasons for this are very complex and it should be the subject of another article.

Now focusing on the belt colors:

There has always been just six colors, each color represents something.
This has been this way and remains this way in all ITF Dojangs worldwide without exception.

White: purity, innocence, ignorance
*White with a yellow slash

Yellow: A seed of knowledge the student has planted while learning tkd so far.
*Yellow with a green slash

Green: It symbolizes the leaves of a tree. The seed of knowledge and training has sprouted into a tree, the students growth.
*Green with a blue slash

Blue: The tree reaches the sky, also symbolizes the element of water and the ability to adapt and develop new skills.
*Blue with a red slash

Red: Fire, danger, Power. the student has acquired strength and power through training but is yet to develop self control to use his skills with wisdom, thus he must be careful and focus. 
*Red with a black slash

Black: Knowledge, impervious to darkness and fear. Skill and maturity.

* Between each color belt there is also a slash before passing unto the next belt. Under traditional training times, you pass a full color belt in one year.

Note that on the above image it says GOLD and not Yellow. It is supposed to be Yellow, not gold. But I didn't have any better image to use for a visual example.

Black Belts:

1 Dan to 9 Dan
9 is a mystical number in Asian culture, 3 is a magic number, and 9 = 3x3 therefore it is the most powerful number.

One is considered a full instructor once reaching 4 Dan, black belts from 1 Dan to 3 Dan can teach but cannot conduct belt tests save special exceptions.

The highest Dan in ITF Taekwon-Do is 9 and it is a honorary degree that is earned through a lifetime of training and helping to promote the art.