MANILA, PHILIPPINES—To celebrate the 70th year of the Philippines and Korea bilateral relations, Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Embassy of The Republic of Korea in the Philippines, and the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines will hold the “2019 Korea-Philippines K-pop Friendship Concert in Manila” on March 7, 2019, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The free concert is the opening event for the “Year of Mutual Exchange” between Korea and Philippines and will promote the celebration through K-Pop music, one of the popular forms of Korean culture in the country.
Popular Korean K-pop groups NCT DREAM, APRIL, and NOIR will perform in the concert while Filipino band Silent Sanctuary will complete the set of performers with their popular Filipino songs. The event will be hosted by Kring Elenzano-Kim and Ryan Bang.
Vice Minister of the MCST Kim Yong-sam will fly to Manila to attend the event and Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Han Dong-man, NCCA Commissioner and Executive Director of the National Archives of the Philippines Victorino M. Manalo will grace the opening to commemorate the longstanding friendship between the two countries.
Year of Mutual Exchange
The year 2019 marks the 70th year of the Philippines and Korea bilateral relations. To celebrate this momentous milestone, President Rodrigo Duterte and Republic of Korea President MOON Jae-In mutually agreed to designate this year as the “Year of Mutual Exchange of Philippines and Korea” during the Korea-Philippine summit on June 4, 2018.
In the same year, MCST and NCCA signed a memorandum of understanding for the promotion of the “Year of Mutual Exchange” in which the two countries agreed to pursue cultural exchange projects in the two capitals and major cities of 2019.
Official Logo
MCST and NCCA also released the official logo for the 70th Year of Philippines-Korea relation, which embodies the ties between the two countries with each country’s national flower Mugunghwa and Sampaguita.
In addition, NCCA plans to hold a “Days of Philippine Culture” event in Korea, while MCST plans to promote various kinds of cultural exchange events in the Philippines such as “Taekwondo cultural Festival,” “The Korean culture and tourism exhibition,” and the “Korea-Philippines Film Festival”.
