1. Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul and President of Korea National University of Arts (KNUA) Park Jong-won will sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the two organizations at the Foreign Ministry on July 12. They will also attend the launching ceremony of the support team for their first cooperation project called “Dream Project.”

° The Foreign Ministry and the KNUA have agreed to increase, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the ROK government’s cultural and public diplomacy projects overseas by bringing together the Foreign Ministry’s network of its overseas missions, and cultural and other art talent and contents of the KNUA. In this light, since late 2012, the two organizations have discussed ways to lay groundwork for bilateral cooperation and sought out cooperation projects that can produce tangible results.

° Under the MOU, the two organizations will hold both public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy projects. As part of the former, they will co-sponsor the “Dream Project” in developing countries. In addition, they will jointly hold music concerts in Washington and two other US cities to mark the 60th anniversary of the ROK-US alliance as part of the latter.

2. At the aforementioned launching ceremony, which will take place in conjunction with the signing of the MOU, letters of appointment will be conferred to KNUA Professors Yoon Dong-gu, Bae Jin-hwan and Lee Ju-yong as well as 30-odd KNUA students who have agreed to share their cultural and artistic gifts with youths of developing countries.

° The Dream Project calls for dispatching the ROK’s cultural and art talent to developing countries to offer their youth art and other cultural classes free of charge, holding concerts and exhibitions, inviting artistically gifted youth selected through auditions to cultural camps in the ROK, and providing scholarships and other benefits to the gifted youngsters who wish to study in the ROK.

° The Dream Project is expected to help attain the incumbent government’s policy vision of contributing to the happiness of the global village through cultural enrichment. It will also give young cultural and art talent of the ROK an opportunity to work abroad, thereby playing a role in strengthening the ROK’s international competitiveness.

3. The Foreign Ministry and the KNUA will continue to seek out concrete cooperation projects and make substantive progress in their cooperation with a view to realizing the ROK’s vision of achieving cultural enrichment overseas.

                         Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation