“Culture is the support of diplomatic relations”: Juan Carlos Caiza, Colombian Ambassador to South Korea, ahead of FIlBo 2022

The countdown is coming to an end: this Tuesday, April 19, the doors of Corferias will open to welcome thousands of readers, academics, writers who are fond of literary culture at the Bogotá International Book Fair -FilBo-, among others. Several new features make this one of the most anticipated editions of recent years, and one of them is the return to face-to-face.

The other novelty - as every year - has to do with the guest of honor: South Korea, beyond being a historical ally of Colombia, has a cultural amalgam worthy of knowing not only at the literary level, but also in terms of cinema, music and everything related to art and creative industries. Therefore, Juan Carlos Caiza, Colombian Ambassador to South Korea, spoke with Infobae Colombia about the importance of this country being part of the FIlBo 2022.

“In these 60 years of relations, the relationship - Colombia-South Korea - has grown on several levels. 71 years ago, Colombia sent troops to the Correa War and in 1962 diplomatic relations were created between the two countries. In 2011, it was achieved the rank of strategic relationship. In 2016, Colombia and Korea have a free trade agreement and in 2021 President Duque pays a visit to Korea, taking this bilateral relationship towards a new scenario that has been called inclusive, sustainable and digital innovation,” the ambassador tells this media outlet, adding that the best way to honoring these relationships is through the promotion of culture.

Caiza Rosero also commented that the ideal setting for promoting the culture of both countries as an example of relations between the two nations is FIlBo, since this diplomacy is carried out “promoting something that goes around the language, of each country, and it is a stage where we invite Colombian and Korean authors to translate their works so that they can get to know each other both in Colombia and in Korea. I think that at a cultural level, this will allow us to know ourselves as a society and on the human stage.”

It may interest you: Welcome to the FilBo! National and Korean film series, presidential debates and some of the guests at the Bogotá literary fair

Another theme that the official highlighted was the special attraction of young people to South Korean culture, stating: “If you compare Korea with Colombia, we can see that there is something different but very interesting and it has to do with the cultural impact that Korea has on the world from the demonstration of its culture, which is called public diplomacy or soft power'; this is a painstaking work in which the Government and the Korean public-private sector have been developing for more than 25 years, a campaign for cultural entrepreneurship, creative industries, and we see how in more than two decades, they have managed to position both film, drama, reality shows , Netflix series, and music with K-pop and the promotion of different musical groups”.

The ambassador also informed the media that next weekend the Korean Minister of Culture will arrive in Colombia and “a delegation composed of six writers, one of them, who has been the translator of 13 works by Gabriel García Márquez into Korean, as well as eight international journalists who will see the country's pavilion invited to honor”. He also specified that, although he will not be at the launch of the FilBo, he will attend the closing, meeting one of the most important visits that will be at the literary festival.

Ban Ki-Moon, the gala guest at FilBo

Caiza explained that the former Secretary General of the UN will arrive in the country on 28 April, since on 29 and 30 of the same month he will have a series of events within the framework of the Book Fair, this last day being the launch of his most recent book 'Resolved', translated into Spanish.

In that order, he noted:

Another factor to be taken into account in the midst of strengthening relations between the two countries is the orange economy, and given this, Caiza indicated that in August last year, the leaders of both countries “signed with their respective ministers nearly 12 cooperation instruments. One of them is called a memorandum of understanding of creative industries, and we see how Colombia already has a scenario of financial and tax incentives for orange economy issues.”

“Korea is currently one of the countries with the greatest impact on development with digital content innovation. That is why with this document that was signed by creative industries, what we want is to start promoting all this kind of digital content and uniting Colombia's success in Latin America in the creative industries, and that is why for two and a half years ago we began, with Colombian and Korean writers, to try to communicate and generate these spaces through literature. The message is that culture is the support of diplomatic relations,” said the South Korea-based official.

KEEP READING