□ The Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE, president Kim Yong-rak) announced that it had appointed So Soon-cheon, former chief of the General Planning Division at the National Library of Korea, as the foundation’s new secretary general and held an inaugural ceremony on July 8 in KOFICE’s central meeting room.

□ The newly appointed secretary general has held several posts in the field of cultural content policies, beginning with the PR and Planning Division at the Government Information Agency and including the Korean Culture and Information Service and the Copyright Policy Division of the Cultural Content Industry Department at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Hub City of Asian Culture Project, and the General Planning Division at the National Library of Korea.

□ Immediately after his inauguration, Secretary-General So expressed his thoughts. “I feel both joy and the weight of responsibility in taking over as the secretary-general of KOFICE, an organization central to Hallyu and cultural exchange, at a time as rapidly changing as this. With Korean culture and communication as the medium, I plan to take lead in the international proliferation of Korean culture.”

□ Meanwhile, KOFICE president Kim Yong-rak remarked that he expects “the new secretary general, as a competent man with much administrative experience, to do his best for KOFICE to position the foundation as a hub of international cultural exchange.”