1. As part of its public diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry held an essay contest on the image of the Republic of Korea from September 3 through October 19. The contest drew 606 participants -- 151 Koreans and 455 people from 59 other countries -- who showed a keen interest in the ROK’s policy on public diplomacy.

° According to an analysis of the essays by foreigners, the majority (49.2%) singled out the ROK’s entertainment sector (K-pop, soap operas, sports) as a contributor to the positive image of the ROK, with 36.3 percent pinpointing the ROK’s economic power as the most important contributor.

- Meanwhile, according to the participants, the ROK’s negative aspects include North Korea (10.8%), the language barrier (10.6%), plastic surgery (8.4%), a high suicide rate (7.7%), an excessive zeal for education (7.0%), and racial discrimination (5.6%).

2. The Foreign Ministry has selected the following winners through an internal screening process and will hold an award ceremony in December.

° Korean winners:

- First prize winner: Park seong-ryeol
- Second prize winners: Kang Oe-san, Ko yeong-min, Paik Ji-min, Lee Gwang-seok and Lee Chang-gi
- Third prize winners: Ko Gwi-han, Koo Ga-min, Kim Wu-yeon, Kim Tae-eun, Lee Chang-young, Jang Yun-jeong, Han Gwyu-ran and Han Jeong-su

° Non-Korean winners:

- Grand Prize winner: Bridget Ke (Philippines)
- Gold Prize winners: Erdenebileg Selenge (Mongolia), G. Radhika Rani and Ranjit Kumar (India) and Frank Cademartori (USA)
- Silver Prize winners: Charles Montgomery (USA), Humayun Iftikhar Gondal (Pakistan), Daniele Pestilli (Italy), Sharise Alonto (Canada), Satish Chandra Satyarthi (India), Muhwezi Stilson (Uganda), Xu Xingcheng (China), Kenneth Okpomo (Nigeria), Rahul Teku Vaswani (India) and Nina Taupier (France)

3. The Foreign Ministry, drawing upon the ideas offered in the essays and a meeting with relevant experts in December, will seek to carry out its public diplomacy activities in the way that sets a desirable image of the ROK by highlighting positive aspects of the ROK and minimize its negative ones.

                            Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFAT

* unofficial translation