By Kim Eun-young and Kim Minji

The culture and tourism ministers of Korea, China and Japan on Aug. 30 pledged to build peace in East Asia through the strengthening of cultural links and cooperation.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Yang-woo hosted the 11th meeting of such ministers from the three nations at Songdo Convensia in Incheon. He also announced the signing of a joint statement on cultural cooperation with Japanese Culture Minister Masahiko Shibayama and Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang.

The statement said the three nations will develop better understanding of each other through cultural exchanges and strengthen cooperation in the culture industry to boost economic growth.

They also agreed to continue joint holding cultural programs including exhibitions of art, photos and calligraphy that were hailed during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The three nations will share their respective strengths by applying outstanding technology under development to cultural industries and bolster exchanges by private art organizations.

To promote various events for cultural exchanges, the meeting also designated the cultural cities of East Asia for 2020: Suncheon in Korea's Jeollanam-do Province, the site of the world's first Ramsar wetlands; Yangju, China; and Kitakyushu, Japan.

In his keynote address, Park said, "We hope that the three nations can enjoy co-prosperity through cultural cooperation and that this can lead to peace and coexistence of the East Asian community."





 
In a cultural event held on Aug. 29, each of the three countries showed their respective traditional performing arts including Korea's traditional mask dance bongsan talchum and the lion dances of China and Japan.

Another performance under the theme "East Asia, opening the gateway to the cultures of the three nations of Korea, China and Japan" featured the participation of the three culture ministers, Korea.net Honorary Reporters and about 1,000 audience members.

eykim86@korea.kr