Young cultural professionals from the four member countries of the Visegrad Group, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, visited Seoul on Sunday as part of the 2016 Korea-V4 Young Professional Cultural Exchange Camp.

The week-long event, which is hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and run by Herald Corp., will take place in Seoul and Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. While in Korea they will experience the local culture and forge new friendships with Korean cultural specialists.

In Seoul, participants will tour the Creative Center for Convergence Culture and the CEL Venture Complex, the cradle of the creative economy and cultural prosperity envisioned by the government. They will be shown around the National Museum of Korea, where they will get the chance to gain a deeper understanding of Korean culture and history, and also visit Samsung D’light and SMTown coexartium to experience the digital technology and the Korean Wave. In Gyeongju, they will see they rich cultural legacy of the ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom, which lasted for nearly 1,000 years (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), as well as the Bulguksa Temple, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Visegrad Group is a Central European cooperative body consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. It was established through tripartite summit talks among Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland on Feb. 15, 1991. Visegrad is a city north of Budapest, Hungary where the talks were held. The number of members increased to four in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. All four states joined the European Union in 2004.

Korea and the group made a joint statement after their summit meeting on Dec. 3, 2015. In accordance with the statement, all sides seek to promote personnel exchanges in the fields of economy, culture and technology as well as to push joint projects.

Participants will be offered gifts including toothpaste and toothbrush sets and “SP Ceramide” mask sheets from Vant 36.5, a premium cosmetics brand favored by Korean celebrities and known for its natural and organic ingredients.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)