By Lee Kap-soo First Lady Kim Keon-hee met with the Honorable Laura Mattarella, who is on a state visit to South Korea with her father, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, at the Yongsan Presidential Office on Nov. 8. Mrs. Kim discussed a variety of topics with Laura, including culture and art, fashion, design, and cuisine, and expressed her hope that "creative and meaningful cultural events will be organized on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Italy next year." "Korea and Italy have a lot in common culturally and emotionally," Kim said, adding t
By Lee Jon-young President Yoon Suk-yeol held a summit with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who is on a state visit to Korea, on Nov. 8 and exchanged views on ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fields of industry, space, and high technology, as well as key international and regional issues. The two leaders praised the steady development of friendly and cooperative relations in various fields between the two countries, which share the universal values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law, and decided to take bilateral relations to a new level next year on the occasion
By Lee Jon-young The following article was contributed by Lee Chil-yong, former expert member of the Cultural Heritage Administration to the Diplomacy Journal. –Ed. Buddhist woodcarver Huh Gil-ryang was born in 1953 in Seungju-gun, Jeollanam-do, and learned the basics of woodcarving from teacher Seo Soo-yeon in 1968 at the age of 15, and learned Buddhist painting from teacher Lee In-ho in 1975 at the age of 22. He was absorbed in Buddhist art at an early age and has been working with Buddhist woodcarving for his entire life. He won the grand prize at the 1977 Buddhist Art Exhibition and was ap
By Kayla Lee Expressing pure beauty in his uniquely structured works, artist Kim Sejoong draws the viewers deep into a magical time in a single space that allows them to see things in a new light and make them look amazing. The thousands and tens of thousands of hours of perseverance they have put in have not been in vain. This is the beauty that reborn European art forms and awakened the sense of art in the East. It will be a fantastic time to open the eyes and minds of the viewers with the reorganization of space and the illumination of vision, guiding them to a new world. Looking at Artist
By Lee Kap-soo “India is organizing the vibrant Gujarat 2024, when India is going to celebrate its 100th year of independence in 2047,” said Ashwini Kumar, principal secretary of the Urban Development & Urban Housing Department, the Government of Gujarat in India. Delivering the Gujarat presentation held at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Nov. 7, Ashwini Kumar said, “India is the world's 5th largest economy with the largest working age population, and she is a preferred investment destination. India has consistently outpaced the global GDP growth and is poised to become the third largest economy o
By Lee Kap-soo Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, who is visiting Japan, participated in the 7th Korea-Japan Governors' Meeting, adding his voice to the call for better relations between the two countries through exchanges and cooperation between local governments. Incheon Metropolitan City announced that Mayor Yoo participated in the "7th Korea-Japan Governors' Meeting" between the Korea Council of Metropolitan Governors and the Japan National Governors' Association on November 1 in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Mayor Yoo attended the meeting as the vice chairman of the Korea Council of Metropolitan
By Lee Kap-soo The following article was contributed by the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Seoul to the Diplomacy Journal.--Ed. For the first time in history, in the capital of Uzbekistan will take place a summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization. The summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) will be held in Tashkent on 8-9 November. Our country has been a member of the organization since November 1992, but this is the first time in the history of independent Uzbekistan and this association that a multilateral summit within the framework of the ECO is being held on Uzbek soil. The
By Lee Jon-young Sweden, a Nordic welfare state, has agreed to learn about the special autonomy initiated by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and expand exchanges between the two regions. Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Governor Oh Young-hoon met with Swedish parliamentarians, including Erik Ottoson, vice chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Swedish Parliament, and Daniel Wolven, Swedish ambassador to the Republic of Korea. The delegation consisted of 10 members of the Swedish Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee came to Jeju to learn about the special auto
By Lee Jon-young The 'King's Road', which was buried in a railroad track during the Japanese occupation, has been restored after more than 100 years. The Cultural Heritage Administration held a ceremony to commemorate the 'Restoration of Gwanghwamun weoldae (stylobate) and plaque' in front of Gwanghwamun Gate at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul on Oct. 15. With the restoration of Gwanghwamun's plaque and stylobate, Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gwanghwamun, which were demolished and damaged during the Japanese occupation, have regained their historicity, place, and symbolism after more than 100 years.
By Kayla Lee LG Electronics hosted the finals of the 2023 Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (GITC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from October 24-28. The successful event, held offline for the first time in four years, saw 461 youth with disabilities from 18 different countries compete in a total of six, diverse IT challenges. The challenges included the two-part eTool challenge, a test of participants’ skill creating presentation slides and utilizing spreadsheets; the eLifeMap challenge, an assessment of one’s ability to conduct text and image searches online; the eContent
By Lee Kap-soo The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) announced on Nov. 1 that MOLIT Minister Won Hee-ryong and Indonesian Ambassador to Korea Gandi Sulistiyanto met in Seoul to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between South Korea and Indonesia in areas such as smart cities, new capital development, and railway infrastructure. The meeting was organized at the request of Ambassador Sulistiyanto, who left South Korea earlier this month to return to his home country to serve as an adviser to the Indonesian president. "I am confident that Korean companies with sufficient
By Lee Kap-soo Hyundai Motor ASEAN HQ launched the Future Mobility School in collaboration with the UNESCO APCEIU and the South Korean Ministry of Education, expanding the educational program to ASEAN countries, the company said on Nov. 6. The classes have been in session since August for the fall semester of 2023, at a total of 12 schools – three in Indonesia, five in Malaysia and four in Cambodia. The Future Mobility School was first introduced by Hyundai Motor Company and the South Korean Ministry of Education in 2016, and this year, Hyundai Motor ASEAN HQ worked together with the UNESCO AP
By Lee Kap-soo President Yoon Suk-yeol and First Lady Kim Keon-hee attended the opening ceremony of the 104th Korean National Sports Festival held at the Mokpo Sports Complex on Oct. 13. The 104th edition of the National Games, which features athletes from 17 cities and provinces across the country, as well as overseas Korean athletes from around the world, was held in Jeollanam-do for the first time in 15 years since Yeosu in 2008, and will run for seven days from October 13 to 19. The 104th edition of the National Games featured overseas Korean athletes from 18 countries (Japan, the United S
By Kim Ji-eun The "Korea-U.S. Space Forum," co-hosted by South Korea and the United States to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-ROK alliance, kicked off its two-day schedule on Nov. 6. "Today, the Korea-U.S. partnership is a global comprehensive strategic alliance," said Foreign Minister Park Jin in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the forum at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul on Nov. 6. "Our collaborative efforts are not limited to the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, but extend beyond the Indo-Pacific region and into space." Commenting on the "militarization of space," Park said
By Kayla Lee Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin met with Deputy Prime Minister of Construction and Industry Baymyrat Annamammedov of Turkmenistan at the opening site of Daewoo E&C's Ashgabat branch to discuss the difficulties faced by Korean companies in Turkmenistan and issues related to winning projects in the energy and plant sectors on Oct. 31. During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Annamammedov highly praised the achievements of Korean companies, including the construction of the Galkinish desulfurization facility and the Kiyanli gas and chemical plant, and looked forward to furt