Nikolay Kropachev and Lee Kyu Hyung discuss plans of the Korea—Russia Dialogue Forum for 2022

In 2021, Lee Kyu Hyung and Hur Seung Chul, Executive Secretary of the KRD Forum on the Korean side, Professor at Korea University, were awarded state decoration ‘For Interaction’ by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

At the beginning of the meeting, the parties voiced a mutual intention to continue cooperation to further develop the relations between Russia and the Republic of Korea. Mr Lee Kyu Hyung also expressed hope that the situation in the second half of the year will allow for the parties to hold events in person, which the experts and participants of the working groups have been looking forward to.

Recently, the group on ‘Politics and International Relations’ has launched a discussion club with a plan to hold regular meetings four or five times a year. Today, the agenda includes holding a second meeting of the club in the North Korean nuclear issue and publishing a collection of papers on international relations. Lee Kyu Hyung, Chair of the Coordinating Committee on the Korean, side said that the new government of South Korea will start its work in May. Then, it will be possible to discuss the events of the working group on "Politics and International Relations".

The working group on "Economy, Trade and Resources" is planning to hold the workshop ‘Plan on the development of the Far East and the Arctic and the measures on promoting investment cooperation between Russia and the Republic of Korea’ in May. In November, experts intend to discuss blockchain technology and prospects of the Russia—Korea partnership in this sphere.

A number of cultural initiatives will be implemented within the framework of activity by the relevant groups of the KRD. Thus, it is planned to expand the thematic field of the 4th Pak Kyongni Art Festival with post-war literature of Russia and the Republic of Korea to attract even more researchers. In 2022, a collection of work by contemporary authors of Russia and Korea will be published.

Materials following the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Pak Kyongni Art Festivals can be found on the University website.

The participants discussed the preparation of a special section at the KRD within the framework of the 9th International Cultural Forum devoted to "The convergence of culture and modern technologies (cultural and educational activity between Russia and the Republic of Korea)".

It is planned to hold the 9th Forum of Rectors of the leading universities of Russia and the Republic of Korea at Korea University in person or online depending on the epidemiological situation. Holding a separate meeting of online education specialists was suggested. Nikolay Kropachev emphasised that St Petersburg University not only takes leading positions in Europe and the world in the number of courses on the Coursera platform, but is also the only Russian university represented on the XuetangX platform in China.

The working group on "Mass Media and Civil Society" will continue implementing the project in the Russia—Korea exchange of journalists and will assist in covering the achievements in the field of cooperation between the countries. In view of exchanging experience and opinions, the Rector of St Petersburg University suggested establishing a discussion club that could be attended by media workers and teachers of academic programmes in journalism at the universities of Russia and Korea. According to the Rector, the experts of the club can include many world-famous researchers in the field of mass communications that work at Russian universities. The Korean side accepted this proposal with enthusiasm.

It is planned to hold the 9th Youth Dialogue in July in the online format. In order to diversify the distant format, Nikolay Kropachev, suggested holding student online tours of the sites in Seoul and St Petersburg as well as other cities in Russia. A specific format and route of such tours can be elaborated independently by the Dialogue participants. Within the framework of the Youth Dialogue, Nikolay Kropachev also suggested holding the meetings between the young researchers of the Korean and Russian languages and literature with contemporary writers. Such meetings could be united with online visits of the famous literary sites in St Petersburg, for example, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University.

The next meeting among the Chairs of the Coordinating Committees of the KRD will be held in the summer of 2022.