1. The Foreign Ministry will hold its tenth “diplomatic talk talk” event titled “dialogue with diplomats in Daejeon” at Chungnam National University in Daejeon, south of Seoul, on May 26.

※ The “diplomatic talk talk” event is a talk concert organized and conducted by the supporters for the Foreign Ministry dubbed the “Friends of MOFA.” It has been held on a biannual basis since September 2012 to communicate with and seek support from young nationals of the Republic of Korea with regard to diplomatic issues.

※ The “Friends of MOFA,” first formed in 2012, is a group of college students from around the country interested in foreign affairs. Its 30 members from home and another 10 from abroad are recruited on a biannual basis.

2. The forthcoming tenth round of the event will feature a lecture and a talk concert on the purpose of the Foreign Ministry’s promotional project for 2017, “global youth” campaign, which is to support bids of youth to expand presence abroad. A question-and-answer session will also take place to answer students’ questions regarding various projects conducted by the Foreign Ministry in support of bids of young Koreans to seek employment overseas.

° Director for Cultural Cooperation Sun Seung-hye of the Foreign Ministry and a director at the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will join the event as panelists and inform the participants of their projects.

※ The tenth “Friends of MOFA” group, having started its activities in March 2017, will work until August 2017, widely promoting off-line and online the Foreign Ministry’s policies and various assistance programs, especially those aimed at supporting youth employment, including through the UN’s Junior Professional Officer (JPO) programme and the UN Volunteers (UNV)” programme, the “public diplomacy internship” at overseas missions and the working holiday program.

3. The upcoming “diplomatic talk talk” event will mark the first of its kind in which the Foreign Ministry will inform young Koreans of its “global youth” campaign designed to support of youth employment abroad. As such, it is expected to serve as a good opportunity to help young Koreans with little chance to communicate directly with the Foreign Ministry better understand foreign affairs and seek to build presence overseas. The Ministry expects that many young Koreans interested in building presence abroad will join the “diplomatic talk talk” event and seek to fulfill their dream to become “global youth.” Going forward, the Foreign Ministry will continue efforts to step up communication with the public.


* unofficial translation