The Korean Culture and Information Service (Director PARK Myung-soon, KOCIS) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST) held a non-face-to-face “14th Friends of Korea” inauguration ceremony on March 17 (Thur). This ceremony marks the start of the activities that the members of the “Friends of Korea” start to find incorrect information about Korea and correct them.

“Facts about Korea: Corrections of Misinformation” has been the project initiated by MCST since 2013. This campaign is to find what is wrongly informed about Korea in foreign media websites and to correct the misleading information for proper understanding of Korea and the culture.

Through application and screening process, anyone regardless of nationalities, who have interests in Korean culture and who can speak foreign languages were eligible to apply to be a member. This year, a total of 70 people became new members, including foreigners who are interested in Korea, Koreans living abroad, and international students who have experience in diverse foreign cultures.

One of the members, KIM, Min-hye, who will continue to take part as a member this year said, “I felt during last year that it is important to make an effort to promote the excellence of our culture but at the same time it is critical to find and correct what is wrongly known in the world”. KIM, Ye-bin, another interviewee, who is studying in Vietnam said, "I want to help protecting and preserving Korean culture by correcting and promoting Korean traditional culture because people outside Korea mainly access information on Korea and Korean culture only via the Internet”.

In particular, to enhance the continuity of activities, eight members were able to continue their activities from last year and they were able to participate for nine months, until the end of this year. Besides their main tasks of promoting the right information on Korea and Korean culture, these new members will also be producing contents about Korea to further promote Korean culture that are applicable to diverse virtual and digital environment. To congratulate the launching of the new “Friends of Korea” members, French actor and model Fabien, who has recently received permanent residence in Korea, attended and supported the activities of the “Facts About Korea”.

Director PARK said, “As people around the world are more interested in Korean culture and Hallyu, we see that there is a high possibility of incorrect information circulating in the Internet, which needs to be corrected and promoted. KOCIS will actively support the activities of the “Facts About Korea” so that information on Korea can be properly known and promoted in the world.

Website: www.factsaboutkorea.go.kr