On December 5 (Tuesday), KISDI held the 2017 International Conference on Inter-Korean Broadcasting & Communication, in collaboration with the Korea Communications Commission, at its International Conference Room.

Organized as a type of town meeting for exchanges in broadcasting & communication in anticipation of the reunification of the divided Korean peninsula, the main agenda of this conference was to look into the state of broadcasting and communication in North Korea and to discuss cooperation in this area to prepare for reunification. Experts from many different sectors came to present their positions and participate in the discussions.

The conference proceeded in three parts: Part 1 was about the current state of broadcasting and communication in North and South Korea; Part 2 dealt with inter-Korean exchanges in broadcasting and communication in anticipation of reunification; and Part 3 consisted of the Reunification UCC Contest.

Especially at this conference, media figures who had recently visited North Korea - such as CEO Chad O’Caroll of NK News, Sebastien Palletti, a journalist working for France’s Le Figaro, Onuki Tomoko, a journalist from the Mainichi Shimbun, and Professor Choi Moon of Yeonbyun University, an expert on North Korean economic transformations who has studied the spread of e-commerce services in North Korea, participated in the debate session.

Also, the winning entry of the Reunification UCC Contest was screened. This contest was created with the support of the Reunification Program Production Support Project, which was launched jointly by KISDI and EBS and sponsored by the KCC. Niklas Klabunde, a TV personality who was in the hit TV show Abnormal Summit, and Han Seo-hee, a North Korean escapee who is now a famous TV personality, were among those who viewed the winning entry. At the end of the screening, the award winner gave a speech, and the contest ended with a talk concert about reunification.

※2017 Project to Support the Production of Reunification TV Programs:
A UCC Contest was held on the subject of reunification and a forward looking inter-Korean relationship. The three winning films will be broadcast nationwide on the ＜Knowledge Channel e＞, as an EBS documentary program.

At the conference, President Kim Dae-Hee of KISDI said, "Broadcasting and communication is both a core infrastructure of society and a public good that everyone can use. Therefore, it will play a very important role in bridging the divided societies and cultures of North and South Korea." He added, "We hope that through discussions on the role of broadcasting and communication, we can together create experiences that we can share on occasions like this. From the inter-Korean cooperation perspective, we hope that the conference will become a vehicle for sincere exchanges.”

Inquiries: Researcher Seo So-young,
International Development Cooperation Group (043-531-4412)