Being able to award rank?

[isshinryu5toforever]

The impression I get is that gup ranks aren't that important, because so many people do Taekwondo, especially in Korea. Chodan (shodan) is kind of a starting point. You get it in a year or two, depending on age and ability, and if you stick around after that, it means you actually want to train. 2nd dan means you stuck around for another year, 3rd dan means you're more serious. 4th dan is where you start getting a lot more respect.

That said, from what I know of the WTF, you need to be a 3rd dan to examine people for rank. 1st and 2nd dan students help run the belt testings, but they are not official examiners. 4th dan and above can grade for shodan up to one grade under their current rank until you get to 3rd dan. From 4th dan and above you need a panel of judges. The test is much more comprehensive.

The reason, this is my opinion, the WTF/Kukkiwon only cares about dan grades is probably because they expect your teacher to care about the gup ranks. They're the governing body for international competitions. They only worry about fighters who fight in international competitions, and those people would all be black belts.