The South Korean's appointment as national performance coach was confirmed by Australian Taekwondo and the Combat Institute of Australia (CombatAUS), the umbrella organisation which has brought the national bodies for boxing, judo and taekwondo under the same roof.

Lee has been a national coach with the South Korean team, coaching athletes to Grand Prix titles and bronze medals at the World Championships.

As an athlete, he won gold in the heavyweight division at the 2002 Asian Championships in Amman in Jordan.

"I'm delighted to be joining Australia's taekwondo high-performance programme as their national performance coach," said Lee. 

"I'm looking forward to coming to Australia and working with their athletes."

Lee has previously been head coach of professional men's team Suyeong-gu and professional women's team Dongrae-gu.

"It's been a lengthy recruitment process and the calibre of applicants very high," said Australian Taekwondo chief executive Heather Garriock.

"Australian Taekwondo is excited to welcome Seokhun to the national performance coach role and work together with CombatAUS to see our athletes achieve more success on the world stage."

Alex Vallentine, the chief executive of CombatAUS, added: "We're really pleased to have been in a position to attract a coach of this calibre to lead the taekwondo high-performance programme in Australia.

"Seokhun possesses a huge amount of technical and tactical knowledge. 

"His sports science background combines to provide high-level leadership and direction to the programme and athletes."