Swedish Speaker of Parliament Andreas Norlen and his wife Helena Norlen, on an official visit to Korea at the invitation of National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug, met with President Lee Sang-kyun of the Korea-Sweden Arts and Culture Society (KOSACS) to share views on cultural ties and exchanges between the two countries.

President Lee said at the meeting, “Artistic and cultural exchanges between countries awaken citizens’ cultural sensibilities and passions, while providing the positive function of promoting political, economic, and social as well as human exchanges.”

He continued to stress, “such exchanges must be further promoted for the sake of advancing relations between our two countries.”

Norlen concurred, saying that “further artistic and cultural exchanges and cooperation are necessary to advance relations between our countries.” He stated his gratitude for the hard work of the KOSACS and urged it to become the main pillar to better enable and further active exchanges in the future.

Yoon Seok-hwa, who has been at the forefront of promoting South Korea’s performing arts on the world stage as a representative of theatrical arts, said, “I look forward to the day Korean theater will be performed on stages in Sweden, which will add to the bilateral exchange of talent and the cultural arts.”

Sweden holds “Sweden Day” every year on June 6, hosted by the Swedish Embassy in Korea. The event has become a grand annual diplomatic festivity with the support of Swedish companies in Korea. The Swedish Film Festival, founded in 2012 under the auspices of Queen Silvia of Sweden, promotes understanding and friendship between the two countries and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021. KOSACS has been a loyal supporter of the film festival over the years. With Speaker Norlen actively taking an interest in cultural exchanges between Korea and Sweden, it is expected that artistic and cultural exchanges between the two countries will become more active after COVID-19.

(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)