Warning: Spoilers for Cobra Kai season 6 part 1
Summary
Shockingly, Kim-Sun Yung is still alive inCobra Kai. In one of Cobra Kai season 6 part 1’s biggest twists, it was discovered that the grandfather of Kim Dae-Eun still lives inThe Karate Kiduniverse. Not only that, but he continues to be in charge of a dojo, with Dae-Eun answering directly to him inCobra Kai.
Kim Sun-Yung’s role in the show’s present-day storyline marks a huge development for the series. While Kim Sun-Yung himself has never had a direct impact on Johnny or Daniel, he has cast a shadow on the story for much ofThe Karate Kidtimeline. After all, Kim is known to be the karate mentor of both Terry Silver and John Kreese. After receiving training from Turner and leaving the military, Kreese turned to Turner’s martial arts master, Kim Sun-Yung, and resumed his training in South Korea. It made sense to assume that this chapter of Kreese’s life was long over, but as it turns out, Kim is still alive and well, all these years later.
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Kim Sun-Yung Is Probably Close To 100 Years Old In Cobra Kai Season 6
Based on what’s been established about Kim Sun-Yung’s past, he has to be close to 100 years old.Kreese’s flashbacks with Kim Sun-Yung appear to take place in the 1980s, and by this point, the character was already an aging sensei and grandfather. These details, combined with the knowledge that he trained Turner in the 1950s, support the notion that he was in his 60s or 70s in the flashbacks. WithCobra Kaiset in the late 2010s, it’s certainly reasonable for Kreese to assume Kim was dead, especially when considering that he was an elderly man more than 30 years ago.
Everything Cobra Kai Has Revealed About Kim Sun-Yung’s Past
As someone who appears to be close to a century old, there are naturally a lot of gaps to be filled with his history inThe Karate Kiduniverse. As it stands, only a few facts have been established. According toCobra Kaiseason 3,Kim trained American soldiers during the Korean War, which was fought between 1950 and 1953. The style he taught was Tang Soo Do, a form of martial arts that exists in real life. Among his students was Captain Turner, who later trainedMartin Kove’s Kreesewhen he was in the military.
Sometime after Turner’s death at the end of the Vietnam War,both Kreese and Silver sought out Kim in South Korea to further their training in Tang Soo Do. The two became his students and trained with him for an unspecified period, with Kreese befriending his granddaughter, Dae-Eun. What happened to him after Kreese and Silver returned to the United States has long been unclear. Originally, it seemed likely that he simply died of old age; instead, Kim is still healthy enough to walk and active at least to some degree. His granddaughter appears to do the bulk of the training now, but as evidenced by his proximity to the students, he remains the one in charge.
