| Young Korean adult representative Kim Joo-wan, left, and Chinese counterpart Yang Lisha, right, pledge to write positive comments on the Internet, along with other participants at the opening ceremony of the "Korea-China Young Adults Sunfull Cyber Public Diplomacy Corps" at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap |
Eighty high school and university students from Korea and China took a pledge on Thursday: They promised to write only supportive comments on the Internet and encourage others to do the same.
The group pledge was part of a ceremony to launch the "Young Korea-China Adults Sunfull Cyber Public Diplomatic Corps,'' a joint project between the Chinese newspaper the People's Daily and the Seoul-based Sunfull Movement Headquarters. The name "Sunfull" comes from a Korean word meaning "positive replies."
With the launch of the new corps, Sunfull and the government-run paper agreed to work together closely to enhance ties and encourage cultural exchanges between the two countries through good behavior in cyberspace.
"As young Korean and Chinese adults are the leaders of the future, and they constitute a large proportion of Internet users, we have a duty to provide them with opportunities to foster friendly relations," said Kim Kyung-tak, Sunfull's chief manager, in an opening speech at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul.
The Sunfull movement started in 2007 when Min Byoung-chul, a professor at Konkuk University, gave his students an assignment. The topic was "Writing positive comments on the Internet."
Min is now the chairman of Sunfull.
"The good messages filling up cyberspace will create a more beautiful and peaceful environment," he said at the launching ceremony.
In January, Sunfull sent a book of condolences to the Chinese television channel CCTV, filled with encouraging comments Koreans had addressed to the survivors of a massive earthquake in Sichuan Province in April 2013.
In April this year, 80,000 Chinese returned the goodwill by sending uplifting messages through the People's Daily website to Korean families who had lost loved ones in the Sewol ferry disaster.
"I believe Korea and China's public cyber-diplomacy initiative is a model for a healthy Internet culture," said Zhou Yubo, head of the paper's Korean bureau. "I hope it can lead to similar exchanges with other countries in Asia, and eventually with other parts of the world."
Holding a sunflower, a symbol of the Sunfull movement, Min said his group was also hoping to work with Japan on a similar initiative for Korean and Japanese Internet users.
"I think trilateral cooperation would not only help to establish a healthy Internet space for young people, but would also carry broader significance," he told The Korea Times.
Yang Lisha, a Chinese member of the new corps who is majoring in journalism at Chung-Ang University, said she would welcome the involvement of other countries such as Japan in the movement to create a more positive Internet culture.
"The campaign will cause no harm, but good outcomes," she said.
Kim Joo-wan, 27, one of the Korean participants and a graduate student at Seoul National University, said he hoped more people would join.
"For people my age, the Internet is an important part of our lives," he said. "This campaign can do a lot of good."