I am Enna Park and I am an ambassador for public diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, in charge of public diplomacy to form strategy and implementation. I can identify myself as a public diplomacy national team director and at the same time I am a major player.



Q1. Public diplomacy is a global buzzword. What is public diplomacy? What role should an Ambassador for Public Diplomacy play?

Public diplomacy is actually diplomacy toward a foreign public. It is different from traditional diplomacy. Traditional diplomacy is basically negotiations between governments and governments. Public diplomacy is diplomacy toward a public and that the way to conduct diplomacy is a little different from the traditional diplomacy, which is based on hard power, military power and economic power.
Public diplomacy is based on cultural soft power. As ambassador for public diplomacy, as I said, I am drafting our country’s grand strategy for public diplomacy and I coordinate public diplomacy activities done by various actors. I am also engaged in daily operations as a main player. I make speeches to foreign publics and I meet the foreign media, and I also organize roundtables, I promote Korean foreign policy goals and policies. I am also engaged in various cultural activities to promote traditional and modern Korean culture.


Q2. What is the role and importance of public diplomacy in South Korea-China relations?
It is very important in the relationship between Korea and China. The main goal of public diplomacy is to win the hearts and minds of people. So by winning the hearts and minds of Chinese people we can broaden the support base for the realization and implementation of foreign policy. The more networks we can make with Chinese people and the more understanding from Chinese opinion leaders like the media and think tanks on our goals and policies then our relationship between Korea and China will have a very solid foundation. That is the role of public diplomacy.


Q3. What is the assessment of Korea’s efforts to strengthen public diplomacy toward China? What are objectives? If you were to choose a few key words to describe the situation, what would they be?

As ambassador for public diplomacy, my assessment should be positive [laughter]. We made a lot of effort to win the hearts and minds of the Chinese people through people-to-people contacts or cultural exchanges and policy-related roundtable communications. We actually built some trust among people. Even though we have some difficulties with China on certain issues, the friendship between the Korean and Chinese people has not been damaged. We still have a very solid foundation. I believe that is the power of public diplomacy.


Q4. What are the major challenges facing South Korea in the area of public diplomacy in South Korea-China relations? How can we overcome such challenges?

Definitely there are some challenges. One is related to external factors. Geographically, geo-economically, Korea’s situation in this region is very delicate. Our strategic interests and China’s strategic interests are, to some extent, different. We have some difficulties in harmonizing the different positions and ideas on certain hard issues like security issues, North Korea nuclear related issues, and the recent THAAD deployment issue. So these structural and strategic differences are very difficult to overcome and they actually influence our people-to-people contacts. Secondly is a somewhat internal factor of China. The Chinese system is somewhat different from ours. It is more central government-centered and top-down decision making. So once the central government decides something then it can influence all other areas of cooperation. So those are two of the main challenges.
How to overcome them? The answer is public diplomacy. We have to communicate and we should exchange our views in a very frank way and we have to understand each other’s different positions and why they have different positions and through this kind of communication we can find common ground and exit to overcome the difficulties. That is the role of public diplomacy before some conflict becomes a crisis. We have to manage it through public diplomacy. Once it becomes a crisis, then we can also solve and overcome the problem through public diplomacy.


Q5. You served as Co-Chair for today’s session. Could you please explain or comment on some of the major arguments or rationales discussed at the session and their implications?

We had a very heated debate on the current Korea-China relations and we evaluated that for the last twenty-five years our relationship developed so dramatically that now we are facing a new reality. Earlier, the problems we had with China were not very serious structural or strategic hard issues. But now we are facing some strategic and structural problems and we have different strategic viewpoints. That is very difficult, but it is time for both of us to look at the reality and based on reality we have form a new type of paradigm to manage the difficulties and then to pursue some new future partnership. That was the main issue we talked about. But basically all of the participants were quite optimistic about the future direction of our relationship because China is quite a precious partner for us and we are the same for China, and we cannot afford a deteriorating relationship with each other. We have to cherish the relationship and we have to further develop our relationship forming a new paradigm.


Q6. Can you tell us briefly about what you said at the Public Diplomacy in South Korea-China Relations session?

I mentioned that the role of think tanks is very important in managing our relationship and also upgrading our relationship. Think tanks, through communication, they know better what each other’s position are and they can also suggest some policy alternatives to the governments respectively. Through academic dialogue they can find some common ground and draft a common picture and discourse about where we stand and to what direction we should go. That is a very important role of think tanks. I emphasized that think tanks are one of the major actors in public diplomacy.


Q7. Could you share your thoughts and ideas on the role of the Jeju Forum to bolster peaceful and prosperous South Korea-China relations?

The Jeju Forum is platform to exchange ideas and to communicate with each other. This year I think the Jeju Forum provided a very meaningful platform for scholars and think tanks from both sides to meet each other and discuss certain issues in a very frank way. This year this kind of roundtable session on the Korea-China relationship is actually the first meaningful gathering. That is the role of the Jeju Forum. It is a very valuable role, I believe.


Q8. Any last words to our JejuTube viewers?

First of all, Jeju Island is very beautiful so all of the participants are very happy to be here. And secondly, by attending the Jeju Forum we can have some insights and new innovative ideas on various issues. It is an ideal market and Jeju Forum should continue to further develop to exchange ideas and innovative thinking about how to a more peaceful and prosperous Asia. Through the Jeju Forum we get a clearer vision so congratulations on a successful Jeju Forum this year.