By Kim Ji-soo, koreatimes.co.kr
Enna image from article
Ambassador Park Enna for public diplomacy, cuts a stylish figure in her leather jacket and smart bob hairstyle. It may not be the hallmark fashion of career diplomat that Ambassador Park is but when she speaks, the 55-year-old career diplomat does with a soft persuasiveness that is hard to defy. On the day of the interview with The Korea Times held on Tuesday, the news came that South Korea and China have agreed to restore or put on right track the bilateralties [sic] that had iced over the placement of the U.S. missile system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping have also agreed to hold summit talks.
"Seoul-Beijing ties have been mutually beneficial to both nations for the past 5,000 years, and its future relationship should also be so. The relationship in the past year or so has been a bit irregular, and Korean and Chinese people wish and desire to continue exchanges can now continue, and the artificial mechanisms set in place to stall the exchanges do not last," Park said.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping in his three- hour plus address to the 19th Communist Party Congress said he will open a new era of Chinese politics and power by 2050, and that it will lead through soft power," she said. "But a country cannot just proclaim that it's a soft power leading nation; neighboring countries need to be acknowledge the soft power of that country, and desire it. So China has to earn the trust and the recognition of neighboring countries," Park said.
The charm of Korea's soft power has been highlighted through the world's hearty response especially with hallyu or the Korean wave which refers to range of Korean dramas, pop song and films, and also with Korean traditional cultures of arts and food. After becoming a donor, not recipient nation of foreign aid, South Korea first upheld 2010 as first year of public diplomacy and then appointed first public diplomacy ambassador Ma Young-sam in 2011. More formal organization was set up last year when the public diplomacy ambassador post was founded and related law implemented last year. "I think it's a post that befits my assets as here, we can draft mid-long term vision to win the hearts of peoples, rather than focusing detailed negotiations," Park said.
Former U.S. Ambassador Lippert's going to baseball games in Korea, and giving his son a Korean name of Sejun are one aspect of public diplomacy. And Park is working to convey multi-level, multi-faceted messages about Korea through her work. "Korea can send a spiritual and inspiring message of ‘can do' spirit where we have achieved economic growth after surmounting colonialism," said Park. ""Korea has shown that we can live peacefully, even in the face of threat of war, and thereby contribute to the peace in the region," she said.
Also, our ‘candlelit protests' demonstrates that Korea has found a new energy to overcome limits of representative democracies, that we can carry and deliver person-centered, citizen-centered passion as a society."
Basically, she sees two pillars of public diplomacy. One is about prompting people of the world to have interest in Korea and lead to understanding and liking Korea. The other is to share vision and consensus of Korea's policies — our peace, climate policies ― with other nations, through opinion leaders and media.
With the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics less than 100 days ahead, Park will visit Portugal and France next week, followed by a visit to the United Nations.
"We will send the message of ‘Peace Beyond Safety' which is the theme for PyeongChang Olympic Games, and adopt the U.N. Olympics Truce Resolution' in New York on Nov. 13," Park said, where she will also be flanked by South Korean Olympian Kim Yu-na. "The Olympics True Resolution will note that Pyeongchang Games will contribute to peace in the region," she said.
One of the most challenging aspects is the budget, which stood at 20 billion won, and the early stages of public diplomacy prowess of Korea. But since taking office in March, a public diplomacy committee across ministries as a control tower, and set up a five-year plan recently.
Park studied history in college, at Yonsei University in Seoul. She was fascinated by history, but she started thinking that history not of the past, but that of the future was where she wanted to be and took the Foreign Services exam. She passed and entered the Foreign Ministry in 1985, and then served in various posts in India, New York, United States and China. She earned a master's in international relations from Columbia University. She oversees about 60 people. Her secret is not to micromanage, but let people's creativity and sense of responsibility do the job.
Public diplomacy is in its third generation, Park said. The first generation public diplomacy was about competing supremacy of ideologies in particular by the United States and Soviet Union. The second generation had more emphasis on cultural exchanges.
"(Now) In the wake of the Sept. 11 attack in the United States, the public diplomacy's focus has been on winning the hearts of the regular people, have the regular people understand and like the country," Park said. She said some often refer to it as "public diplomacy war"
"But when you think about it, public diplomacy is not a zero-sum game. The more each nation participates in public diplomacy, contribute to peace in the world, it would invariably affect their public policies, because a country is compelled to adhere to global-standards… A country cannot say one thing and act in another way," she said.
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