The Hangeul alphabet. The geobukseon "turtle ships." Semiconductors. Smartphones. K-pop. What are the common elements embedded in these items?

Starting last year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) held a contest to collect ideas and suggestions for a “DNA of the Republic of Korea” from both inside and outside the country. It wanted to find an answer to the question, “What is something Korean?” Through the survey, the ministry gathered a total of 30,999 suggestions and collected keywords about “Koreanness” from about 1.27 million submissions. As a result, three words showed up most often: creativity, passion and harmony. Among them, creativity was selected as the pivotal concept.

So the new national brand for the country was announced on July 4: Creative Korea. The culture ministry announced the new brand explaining that creativity was a core value of the nation. The government has been carrying out a national branding campaign in order to reaffirm the identity of the Republic of Korea and to mark the 70th anniversary of Korean independence last year.



The motif of the new national brand is the Taegeukgi, the national flag. The words “creative” and “Korea” are written one atop the other. Simple lines, part of the flag's four trigrams, are placed at the end of the two words. Thanks to the space between the two words, the logo can be used in various ways by adding more images or words.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jongdeok said, “The results of the survey show that many people selected ‘passion’ to represent Korea today and ‘creativity’ for our future-oriented values.”

“As we can see from our cultural heritage of the past, creativity can serve as a core value that penetrates both the past and the future of the Republic of Korea,” he concluded.

By Wi Tack-whan
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Jeon So-hyang, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Jeon Han, Korea.net photographer.
whan23@korea.kr