By Sohn JiAe

Cheong Wa Dae announced its plans to promote and help the press cover the upcoming 2018 Inter-Korean Summit on April 22, just five days before the historical meeting begins between the two Koreas.

Presidential Senior Secretary for Public Relations Yoon Young-chan said during a press briefing that, “We’ve set up a platform where the press and the world audience alike will be able to see a live broadcast of everything about the talks, not only online, but also via mobile phone.”

“We’ll also set up a real-time transmission and reception system at press centers and briefing rooms for the summit, to support the media from all around the world in a ‘smart manner,’” said Yoon.

Cheong Wa Dae will support the media to cover the historic summit in an efficient manner by opening a press room at Panmunjeom, the venue for the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit, a main press center at the KINTEX convention center in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do Province, and an on-site broadcasting studio at the Dorasan Inter-Korean Transit Office.

The Panmunjeom Press Room, established in the first-floor cafeteria at the Freedom House, will have a total of 50 seats. It will open on April 27, the day that the summit kicks off, and will transmit in real-time articles, photographs and video clips taken at the historical event straight to the Main Press Center at KINTEX.

The Main Press Center, set up on the first floor of the convention center, will accommodate more than 3,000 journalists and broadcasters from around the world. It will be in operation starting at 9 a.m. on April 26 until April 28. The center will house a briefing room for 1,000 media professionals, an international broadcasting center and an editorial room for photos and video clips.

A huge screen will be displayed at the venue, live-streaming the summit, as well. On top of that, one large broadcasting booth will be aligned for 28 media outlets, while a select group of 30 broadcasters will use exclusive booths.

The Host Broadcaster will live-broadcast the summit, from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveling toward the southern part and the first encounter between Kim and President Moon Jae-in all through to the North Korean leader leaving a message in the guests’ book, the first conversation between the two leaders and the two walking into the meeting room.

For the non-Korean press, every press briefing will be interpreted simultaneously into English and all briefing materials will be put out in both Korean and English, too. Major stories will be published in nine languages at the official summit website (http://www.korea.net/Government/Current-Affairs/National-Affairs?affairId=656): English, simplified Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Vietnamese.

The Broadcasting Studio at the Dorasan Inter-Korean Transit Office will have a total of 24 media outlets, from both at home and abroad. Talk shows featuring experts, as well as news broadcasting, will take place there, too.

On April 28, a day after the summit comes to an end, the Main Press Center will have a final briefing to announce the outcome of the summit. Cheong Wa Dae said that it will continue to keep the press posted about details related to the summit by having a press conference hosted by President Moon’s official entourage in the summit, and, also, by publishing a white paper on the talks.

“The inter-Korean summit will serve as a guide for a following summit between the U.S. and the North. A total of 858 journalists and broadcasters from 348 media outlets from 34 countries around the world will come to Seoul, Goyang-si and Panmunjeom,” said the secretary for public relations. “We’ll make sure to set the proper conditions to allow the whole world to watch the upcoming summit, a summit for the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula, unfolding in real time,” he added.

jiae5853@korea.kr