A festival highlighting Korea's traditional paper folding art titled "K-Jongie Jupgi" will be held in Paris in October, its organizer said Thursday.

The Seoul-based Korea Paper Culture Foundation-World Jongie Jupgi Organization and the Korean language (hangeul) school in Paris signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining the plan in the French capital.

Under the MOU inked on Wednesday (local time), the two sides agreed to make a concerted effort to help globalize the traditional Korean paper folding technique. This, they said, could further help spread Korea's cultural wave of "hallyu" in Europe.

According to the local foundation, the Korean language school in Paris is expected to be an outpost of spreading the Korean paper folding art in Europe.

The two organizations said they will jointly hold the paper folding festival in early October under the theme of wishing for the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and the promotion of world peace.

Since ancient times, Koreans made paper, called "hanji," from mulberry trees and used it in a variety of ways in their daily life.

Paper culture is deeply associated with the intimate aspects of daily life, with the material being used in artistic ways by folding, cutting and twisting it.

During the forthcoming festival, lectures will also open to teachers of the Korean language school in Paris and teachers belonging to the Federation of Korean Schools in France.

Specifically, paper folding skills will be offered to children and youngsters during the festival.

In addition, the two organizations also agreed to hold contests to promote K-Jongie Jupgi and paper-related culture.

Attending the MOU signing event were Korean and French dignitaries including Laurence Bidar, principal of the Gustave Flaubert Middle School in Paris.

The French middle school has adopted Korean as its second foreign language, a first for a French school.

In her congratulatory speech, Bidar said she hopes the forthcoming Paris festival will be an opportunity for Korean paper folding culture to spread across Europe as well as France. (Yonhap)