1. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun will attend an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of the ASEAN Culture House, to be held in Busan on September 14.

o The ASEAN Culture House, established as part of a project to follow up on the 2nd ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit (December 2014, Busan), is a platform for two-way cultural exchanges that opened outside the ASEAN region for the first time. Since its opening in Busan on September 1 last year, it has been conducting a range of academic, cultural, and people-to-people exchange programs to help the two sides better understand each other, and to strengthen cultural networks.

2. In his congratulatory remarks, Vice Minister Cho will take note that since establishing sectoral dialogue relations in 1989, the ROK and ASEAN have enhanced their ties at a rapid pace over the past 30 years. He will also stress that the ROK government is committed to elevating the ROK-ASEAN partnership to a higher level through the New Southern Policy.

o Vice Minister Cho will especially highlight the importance of cooperation on “People” among the New Southern Policy’s three key areas for cooperation -- People, Prosperity, and Peace -- and explain that the New Southern Policy’s main goal is to facilitate people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the ROK and ASEAN.

o The Vice Minister will also mention that to ensure a more balanced cultural exchange between the ROK and ASEAN, the two sides need to work towards the promotion of ASEAN’s culture in the ROK, as well as the rise of Hallyu (increase in global popularity of the ROK’s pop culture) in ASEAN. He will ask the ASEAN Culture House to continue to play many roles in doing so.

* unofficial translation