The opening address, at the Emerald Room of the Hotel Shilla, is being delivered by Speaker Kwan Yong Park, speaker of the Korean National Assembly. The conference is being co-hosted by the Asia-Europe Foundation and the Korea Press Foundation, with Foundation Deputy Executive Editor Sung-Chul Kim and KPS Chairman Kee-Jung Park also greeting the delegates, consisting of 30 editors-in-chief and media presidents from 25 countries in Asia, Europe and the United States. The keynote speakers in the plenary session are Dr. Josef Joffe, editor-publisher of Die Zeit of Germany, Dr. Yoichi Funabashi, chief diplomatic correspondent of Asahi Shimbun of Japan; and Dr. William L. Winter, president of the American Press Institute.
The delegates will meet this afternoon with South Korea’s President Kim Dae-jung in the Blue House (the ROK’s equivalent of Malacañang Palace and the White House).