The Korean Culture and Information Service (Director PARK Myung-soon, KOCIS) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister PARK Bo Gyoon, MCST) announced that new 4,834 reporters from 122 countries at home and abroad started their activity as Honorary reporters this year.

The 12^th Honorary reporters is the largest number in history, with 1,402 more people from 17 countries compared to 3,432 reporters from 105 countries last year. With this year’s new reporters on board, the number of the total KOREA.NET Honorary reporters reach approximately 5,000. Among the 5,714 applicants, 4,834 were finally selected after the screening processes. For this year’s reporters, 410 reside in Korea and 4,424 live abroad. By language, English reporters were 1,544, followed by Spanish 1,104, Arabic 745, and Indonesian 405. By country, Egyptian reporters reached 640, with the highest number followed by Mexico 422, Indonesia 403, and India 279. For the first time, KOREA.NET launched service in Indonesia and new reporters from 17 countries, including Latvia, Malawi, Qatar, and Estonia joined the group as Honorary reporters.

There are new reporters with special career background. Kubra RENDECIOGLU from Turkey has been working as a Hanbok designer since 2014, and shared plan to hold a Hanbok fashion show in Turkey this summer to further promote the beauty of Korea. Vu The ANH is a current journalist who has been working as an TV presenter for Vietnam Public Broadcasting Company for 5 years. Vu expressed ambition to play a role in promoting Korea through various contents and connecting Vietnam and Korea by utilizing the experience working in the media field for 10 years.

Starting with the inauguration ceremony on May 20 (Fri), the 12^th Honorary reporters will provide news about Korea through the official website (www.korea.net) and social media networks (SNS), including articles, photos, and videos.