South Korean Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik will attend a culture ministers’ conference with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts in Shanghai, China, from Friday through Sunday, ministry officials said Wednesday.

The trilateral meeting will focus on ways to establish an Asian cultural community as a joint project by the three countries in culture and arts, cultural assets and the culture industry, the officials said.

Choe will also hold two-way talks with Chinese Culture Minister Cai Wu and Japanese Culture Minister Hirofumi Hirano to discuss bilateral cooperation with their respective countries in cultural matters.

Choe will express South Korea’s cooperation with action plans to be jointly pursued by the three countries over the next three years in a keynote speech.

Joint projects to be included in the action plans are the selection and development of a city for East Asia culture and arts creation, a culture and arts festival and a culture and arts education forum.

Choe also plans to ask the two countries to actively participate in Japan Day (June 2) and China Day (June 28) during the Yeosu Expo, which will open May 12 in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, 455 kilometers south of Seoul.

The three-nation culture ministers’ conference is an inter-governmental cooperative network. Previous meetings were held in Nantong City, China, in 2007, Jeju City, South Korea, in 2008 and Nara Prefecture, Japan, in 2011. 

(Yonhap News)