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| Participants of the first main session of the Mt. Halla Forum organized by the Korea Foundation pose, Thursday. Courtesy of KF |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The Korea Foundation (KF) presented a two-day forum last Thursday and Friday in commemoration of its 30th anniversary.
Korea's only official public diplomacy institution offered insights on the future of Korea and the world at the 2021 KF Mt. Halla Forum.
The forum, held in an online-offline hybrid format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, centered on the theme of "Opening a New Chapter: Future Game Changers."
KAIST professor Suh Chang-ho presented three artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that will change the future, while Seoul National University professor Lee Hyun-sook brought up the issue of biotechnology.
Other speakers included art curator Lee Dae-hyung, Jeju Research Institute President Kim Sang-hyup on the environment, Song Gil-young of VAIV Company on big data and Hongik University professor Yoo Hyun-joon on architecture.
German philosopher Markus Gabriel from the University of Bonn took part in a special session titled "Co-navigating the Future."
Gabriel introduced the concept of "New Enlightenment," which could solve some big global problems of the 21st century.
"New Enlightenment is the idea that human beings are to govern their own behavior in light of radical autonomy," Gabriel said.
He said people need ethics of the future, not just science as a big picture vision for the 21st century.
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| Korea Foundation President Lee Geun speaks during the 2021 Mt. Halla Forum, Thursday. Courtesy of KF |
The KF Commemorative Session shed light on the 30 years of the KF's global networking and achievements.
Kim Tae-hwan, a Korea National Diplomatic Academy professor who previously headed public diplomacy at the KF, said geopolitical competition between the United States and China prompts these powers to use public diplomacy for their own interest and it imposes questions of how a small country like Korea can make the best out of public diplomacy.
"I think the Korea Foundation has been leading public diplomacy and every important diplomatic agenda created by the foundation has created discourses," Hanyang University professor Eom Gu-ho said.
The KF moved its headquarters to the southern island of Jeju in 2018 and the foundation invited Jeju-related speakers to highlight the potential of the region during the Jeju Future Session.
KF President Lee Geun noted some common features among the discussions such as AI, big data, blockchain technology, climate change and green growth.
"There is a common strain in all of those insights. These changes bring ethical, social and cultural issues and we have to be critical and empathetic based on understandings of humanities and arts in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Lee said during a wrap-up session, Friday.
In a nod to the Young Innovators session, Lee said the future game changers of Korea would be the young.
"They were born in an advanced nation and they are much more innovative and much more global trend-savvy than the earlier generations who were born in a developing nation. They seek a bright future as the previous generations have paved the way for the current young generation to emerge," Lee said.
