Media to be the bond of Sino-ROK relations

More objective stories should be developed to enhance the relationship between China and the Republic of Korea as well as deepen the understanding about each other, Seoul's media practitioners said during discussions with a visiting delegation of Chinese media.

Han Woo-duck, CEO of Chinalab, said the ROK should pay attention to China's changes and seek opportunities for a win-win cooperation.

He said China has been the ROK's important economic and trade cooperation partner, and the non-governmental exchanges between the two sides have also covered various aspects such as culture and society.

"An Increasing number of Koreans hope to know more about China, but some Korean media often lacks objectivity when writing stories about China," he said, adding that the establishment of Chinalab was aimed to serve as a platform for Koreans to get objective information about China.

Chinalab was founded in October 2016 jointly by The Central Times, a daily newspaper in ROK, and Naver, the country's largest portal. The lab also runs a China channel on Naver to provide information on China's economy, society and culture in Korean language, which has more than 1.5 million subscribers.

The Chinese delegation arrived in Seoul on Oct 29 for a four-day visit at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the ROK. The members are from China Daily, People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Media Group, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, China News Service and Global Times.

Jung Kyu-sung, president of Journalists Association of the ROK, said he hopes the media from both sides can play a more active role in promoting the development of Sino-ROK relations and enhancing mutual understanding among the peoples.

He said China has attracted attention from the world with its great achievements in development. "I am very optimistic about China's future economic development, and South Korea is also willing to share more development opportunities."

Son You-min, a staff at Yonhap News Agency, said Korean people are greatly interested in Chinese stories, especially economic field.

Based in Seoul, Yonhap started news exchanges and cooperation with Chinese media such as People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and Phoenix Network.

In the future, Han from Chinalab said the platform will keep focusing on reporting China's economic development and changes, making more Koreans understand China and more Korean companies to enter China, and expanding the exchange and cooperation channels between ROK and China through seminars.

"We will continue to create an accurate, objective and in-depth Chinese information platform to promote non-governmental exchanges between the two countries."