“Angry Birds” are Finnish. Who knew? Not actual birds, but the flightless, virtual kind that inhabit over a billion smartphones around the world. The game is huge in Korea, too.

In fact, Korea has the third-highest number of downloads of the game, designed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Entertainment, after the United States and China.

Finland’s new envoy here in Korea said there are many other things from Finland that are quite popular in Korea, but raising Finland’s national brand is still his top priority.

“My task is to promote Finland but in order to do that, I need to convince people back in Finland of the importance of Korea,” said Finnish Ambassador to Korea Matti Heimonen, who presented his Letter of Credence to President Lee Myung-bak on Oct. 5, a necessary step of every ambassador before officially starting a posting here.

“I like (‘Angry Birds’) very much,” he said about the popularity of the mobile game.

“China and America are much bigger markets, but Korea has the third (biggest) in the world. It is because of the penetration rate for smartphones. It is bigger here than even in Japan. Penetration in Korea is 100 percent,” he said.

The original “Angry Birds” game attracted about 200 million active players a month worldwide in 2011, according to one media report.

Another product from Finland hugely popular here is not exactly from Finland ― Lotte Group’s Xylitol chewing gum.

Xylitol is actually a Finnish word. The gum is an alternative sweetener that does not harm teeth. Originally derived from birch trees about 100 years ago, its dental benefits were fleshed out in studies conducted at Finland’s Turku University in the 1970s. Finland still makes this sweetener for Lotte’s chewing gum.

Finland is a big exporter of many raw materials and intermediate goods to Korea, and Korea-Finland two-way trade is estimated at $1.7 billion for 2012, tilted slightly in Finland’s favor.

Korean exports include electronics, machineries, automobile, shoes and textile; Finnish exports include steel, machineries, minerals and paper, according to data released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Heimonen is dually accredited to both South and North Korea, and presented his credentials in Pyongyang to Kim Young-nam, the octogenarian chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, in October.

“He is a dynamic young guy born in 1928,” he said with a smile. “Being an ambassador to Korea you have to pay attention to events in North Korea.”

The Finnish envoy said he spent about five days in Pyongyang and outside of the North Korean capital city. “You can see and feel that change is in the air there.”

He said he traveled freely around Pyongyang, including to shopping districts, markets, a department store and many other places.

“Five years ago there were no mobile phones. Now there are more than 1 million. Everywhere in Pyongyang people are talking on their mobiles, although people are still not allowed to call overseas. It is a huge increase of connectivity over just a few years before,” he said.

“(From) what I can see with my eyes, there is change happening there,” he said. “The main (focus) is South Korea, but the Northern neighbor is keeping us quite busy.”

Next year, Korea and Finland will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the countries are already working hard to make 2013 a milestone year in relations.

For example, Finland and Korea recently inked a deal to create a Seoul-Helsinki direct route for air travel.

Heimonen said Koreans have an image of Finland as a clean and healthy place that is also quality-oriented and design conscious, but that he has to do more to raise awareness of his country.

Helsinki was designated World Design Capital (WDC) in 2012, following Seoul’s designation as WDC in 2010, by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

A Finnish sauna might be one place to start, he said. “It might be my mission as ambassador to Korea, because I have found that Koreans like sauna.”

As for the Finnish mobile phone game designer Rovia, it has pinned hopes that its latest effort, “Bad Piggies,” will prove that its 2009 hit, which has been downloaded over 1 billion times, was not a one-off.

That will surely depend in no small part on what Korean fans of “Angry Birds” think.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)