[Sponsored Report] Boosting Korea’s cultural power

The Korea Foundation promotes Korea’s national image worldwide through cultural exchanges and other programs. Provided by the foundation

Culturally advanced countries such as Britain, France and Japan, which already have high national brand value, invest continuously in international exchange activities to raise their national image and contribute to exports.

Korea needs to improve its image in the international community similarly, which is why the Korea Foundation was founded in 1991 under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to carry out cultural diplomacy, foster global friendship and the bolster soft power.

The Korea Foundation is a public diplomacy organization that works to increase interest in Korean studies overseas, encouraging experts in the field through human resources and cultural exchanges, forums and publishing and distribution of texts.

The organization contributed to establishing 92 Korean studies positions at 65 universities in 13 countries, including Harvard University and Oxford University. This achievement came after 18 years of promoting Korean studies overseas. Recently, Peking University established an independent Korean language department in March. At Peking, the Korean language program had been just a small part of the Department of Oriental Languages since 1945.

The foundation is also in charge of bringing exhibitions of significant Korean historical artifacts to major museums in foreign countries. Including three of the most prestigious museums in the world - the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London and the Musee National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet at the Louvre - the foundation operates 19 Korean exhibition rooms in seven countries to give locals the chance to experience Korean culture and history remains without having to visit Korea.

The foundation has supported a total of 3,828 scholars and graduate students in Korean studies. Every year, 1,500 current experts and future leaders are invited to Korea by the foundation. The organization also hosts a 15-nation forum to establish a high-quality human network. The foundation is very actively promoting Korea to the world, introducing Korean culture and art, publishing the Koreana and Korea Focus magazines and producing and distributing videos and books about Korea.

Especially in the 21st century, when the power of culture - soft power - will play the key role in a nation’s competitiveness, the foundation is expanding into new areas while widening and diversifying the content it provides.

The Koreana and Korea Focus periodicals are two other major projects of the foundation. The quarterly magazine Koreana has been published since 1987 for foreign readers interested in the humanities, culture and art in Korea. It is published in eight languages - English, German, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.

Korea Focus helps people understand local issues, with articles on Korea policy, diplomacy, North Korea, the economy, society and culture from a wide variety of columnists and academics.

By Lee Ji-hyun [concordia@joongang.co.kr]