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Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee on May 10 gives to LOONA member HeeJin a letter of appointment designating the K-pop girl group this year’s promotional ambassador of Korean culture at a ceremony hosted by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.

 

By Lee Jihae

Photos = Jeon Han
Seoul | May 10, 2021

The 12-member girl group LOONA is the Korean Culture and Information Service(KOCIS)’s  promotional ambassador this year to spread Korean culture worldwide.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee on May 10 gave the official letter of appointment to the group at a ceremony held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.

LOONA is the first girl group named to the post since KOCIS, an affiliate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, named its first promotional ambassador in 2019.

“We are very honored to become the promotional ambassadors of Korean culture this year,” group member HeeJin said.

“We will further promote K-pop and Hallyu.”

LOONA’s first task in its new role will be performing at Korea.net’s induction ceremony for Honorary Reporters, a program that allows foreign fans of Korea to promote Korean culture worldwide.

The group took part in the production of a video to promote “Talk Talk Korea,” an international competition for Korea-related content hosted by KOCIS. The video of LOONA’s appointment will be released on May 20 and that for the competition on May 25 through Korea.net’s official YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/GatewaytoKorea).

Before the group’s debut in August 2018, each member released a single album every month while also performing as a unit. The unit album was released before the group’s official debut and made the top 10 of Billboard’s World Albums chart.

In October last year, the group released “Star,” an English-language version of its song “Voice.” The tune was the first by a K-pop girl group to remain in the top 40 of a major North American radio chart (Mediabase) for nine straight weeks.

Minister Hwang said at the appointment ceremony, “Please be proud of participating in KOCIS’ various activities for promoting Korean culture,” adding, “Appointing a promotional ambassador for promoting Korean culture abroad is all the more special this year on the occasion of KOCIS’s 50th birthday.”

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Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee (sixth from right) on May 10 poses for a photo at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul with LOONA after giving the K-pop girl group a letter of appointment as this year’s promotional ambassador of Korean culture.

jihlee08@korea.kr