Dear friends and colleagues,

I am delighted to be here with you at this luncheon today.

I heard that you had very extensive and productive discussions this morning on ways to improve Korea's image around the world. It is a pity that I missed a chance to share my own ideas and thoughts with you. This is an issue in which I have a great personal interest and I very much appreciate your contribution.

These days many people in Korea talk about the importance of public diplomacy. But in reality a comprehensive strategy is not there yet. It is only a recent development that the Korean government began to take public diplomacy seriously and work on an effective strategy to make it deliverable.

I must admit that I myself find it difficult to answer the question of what public diplomacy is all about. And I frequently ask myself what kind of role I have to play as a diplomat when performances by world stars such as Psy and Yuna Kim have a tremendous impact in promoting the national brand image of Korea in every corner of the world.

Indeed, public diplomacy is an increasingly important tool of diplomacy especially in terms of three distinct qualities - voluntary, touching, and direct.

Today we live in a world in which more and more people tend to make an independent judgement and act on their own due to communication technology breakthrough. Since people can access easily to any information throughout the world, sophisticatedly contrived situations no longer attract attention. Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, was absolutely right to say that when a crowd believes it has made a choice on its own, that choice will have a lasting impact.

I have witnessed the power of self-motivation in Central and South America. K-pop fandom has been spreading throughout the region. Latin America currently has over 200 K-pop clubs. Recently those clubs have hosted several K-pop contests, which has made even more people in Latin America interested in Korean culture. These types of self-motivated activities in which organizations act completely on their own seem to be much more conducive to a favorable image of Korea and its products. A recent survey showed that most Korean businessmen believe that the Korean wave is having a positive effect on their overseas business activities.

The reason why I pinpoint touching as a second key word for public diplomacy is because there are good examples that show the impact of moving people's hearts. One of the examples is the story of Father Lee Tae-Seok who devoted himself to helping the poor in the South Sudan. He dedicated himself to building a school and a hospital in a battle-scarred village, Tonj, and to healing bruised hearts of people in there. Even a film called "Don't Cry, Tonj" has been made to honor his respectable deed.

His self-sacrificing love toward the people in Tonj made Korea a country close to the heart of the Sudanese. The Korean Foreign Ministry founded "Lee Tae-Seok Prize" in August 2011 to commemorate Father Lee's devotion and dedication to humankind. The Foreign Minister awards the prize to a person who has devoted himself or herself to helping people in poverty or danger in developing countries. We are also implementing cooperative programs with KOIKA to support activities for the award winners.

The last feature of public diplomacy is direct. A direct approach is much more effective when we want to deliver ideas to ordinary people. Let's take example of "Quiz on Korea". Last year, thousands of foreigners participated in that contest. The final winner, a lady from Uzbekistan, became famous in her own country, and Uzbek President Karimov even invited her to his residence. Since then, Uzbekis have shown a strong desire to learn about Korea. In 2013 as well, thousands of people from 30 countries are studying hard not only to learn Korean, but also to gain knowledge about Korea in order to win the second Quiz on Korea contest.

To sum up, successful public diplomacy occurs when we deliver a message directly to ordinary people and touches them in a way that makes them decide to act on their own.

All of you present here today, with different backgrounds and diverse views on the Korean society, play a significant role in helping the Korean government design a strategy for public diplomacy and execute it in a most effective way. I heard some of you have published articles about Korea both here and in your own countries. My profound gratitude to you for all such activities! I hope that you will continue to share your sage advice with us and keep promoting the true image of Korea to the entire world building on the outcome of today's seminar. We in the Foreign Ministry will always be at your service in your future endeavors to this end.

Thank you very much.