The former and 1st Vice Minister for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kwak Youngjin, sworn in as the 6th Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange. Having obtained a doctorate degree in public administration from Yonsei University, he served as the Director of the Department of Arts, Head of the Cultural Industry Bureau, and Director of the Planning and Coordination Office of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as well as Deputy Director General for Education and Culture of the Prime Minister’s Office and Secretary to the President for Culture, Sports and Tourism after he had passed the 25th National Public Administration Examination in 1981. Later, he also served as the 1st Vice Minister for Culture, Sports and Tourism.

While holding the posts of the Vice Chairman and the Secretary General of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the Vice President of the Korea Football Association, he was widely recognized for his knowledge and outstanding skills in running a major international event, which currently led him to be appointed as the Standing Vice Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The newly appointed chairman said, “I’ve been seeing that the Republic of Korea will be growing into a cultural powerhouse through the development of and a change in the Hallyu trend while I was implementing policies to promote the contents industry for a long time.” He revealed his strong ambitions, saying, “I will work together with every member of the Foundation to promote a creative economy and cultural prosperity through the sustainable growth of Hallyu by encouraging bilateral exchanges and the convergence of Hallyu.”

Along with his appointment as the chairman, the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange appointed a new set of board of directors to promote the “convergence of Hallyu.”