"The embassy of the Republic of Korea will try to expand a variety of cultural exchanges…. The new President of South Korea Moon Jae-in stressed the importance of relations with Russia and intends to make a breakthrough in cooperation between the two countries," Park said.
Earlier in the day, Park and Russia's Deputy Culture Minister Alexander Zhuravsky signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation, according to which the two countries would hold a number of cultural festivals from 2017 to 2020.
"We expect that cultural exchanges will play a major role in the implementation of these plans. In May of this year, in the framework of the Korean culture festival in Russia, different cultural exchange programs are being carried out, including performances, exhibitions, film screenings,… conferences, competitions, and so on," the ambassador added.
Park expressed hope that Korean and Russian culture would help to lift the friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a higher level.
In turn, Zhuravsky said that Russian-Korean ties were already active as evidenced by the growing tourist flow between the two countries. According to the deputy minister, the amount of Russian tourists travelling to South Korea in 2016 grew by 20 percent in comparison to 2015, while the figure for Korean travelers during the same period increased by 18.5 percent.
