Winners of the 2017 Korea Image Award ceremony, an event annually organized by the Corea Image Communications Institute, pose at the InterContinental Seoul Coex on Wednesday.

Since 2005, the venue has honored individuals who have promoted Korea worldwide, supported by Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Culture and Information Service.

In the picture are British Ambassador to Korea Charles Hay, Cho Tae-kwon, chairman of porcelain company Kwangjuyo, Korean golfer Pak Se-ri and CICI president Choi Jung-wha, from left to right.

Pak, winner of 25 LPGA tournaments, was awarded for inspiring Koreans during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s through her heroic victories, as well as coaching the South Korean women’s golf team to its gold medal at the Rio Summer Olympics last year.

Hay received the honor in lieu of AlphaGo, the first computer program to beat a human Go professional, Korean Go player Lee Se-dol, in a series of matches last year. AlphaGo was developed by British artificial intelligence development firm DeepMind.

Cho was honored for his role in globalizing and elevating Korean gastronomic culture, promoting food, drinks and china as a single package. His restaurant Gaon received three stars from the 2016 Michelin Guide Seoul, and Bicena won one star from the French gastronomy guide book.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)