Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism employees behind the Lumiere Partnership and the National Museum of Korea's costume play festival have received special performance awards for raising the profile of K-culture. Minister Choi Hwi-young granted a combined 71 million won ($50,000) in special performance awards on the 21st to 40 staff members who contributed to spreading K-culture globally, broadening public access to culture and improving regulations, the ministry said. It was the ministry's fifth such round of awards, following those in March, April, June and September.
Kim Ji-hee, director of the video and broadcasting content industry division — now the overseas public relations planning division — and Kim Hye-jin, director of the culture technology division, were recognized for planning and carrying out Korea's participation as co-chair country of the Lumiere Summit, an international film and video summit proposed by the French president to mark the 140th anniversary of Korea-France diplomatic relations. Kim Ji-hee and her colleagues held weekly working-level meetings with France's National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), mapping out everything from the event's official program to the adoption of a joint declaration and the launch of the Lumiere Partnership. As a result, 274 participants from 58 countries — including culture ministers, film and video industry leaders and creative talent — attended the event, co-chaired by the Korean and French leaders. They also organized a Korea-led round table on film and video that steered discussion on cooperation between global and regional players, a topic drawing worldwide attention, and helped bring about comprehensive partnerships among companies and institutions.
Kim Jae-hwan, a director at the National Museum of Korea, along with officials Jung Jae-hyun, Eom Chae-hyun, Seo Hee-ju, Han Hyung-jun, Lee Ha-rim, Choi Ji-hyun and Cho Yoon-seo, transformed the museum's costume play event — previously held mainly at the National Museum of Korea — into a large-scale festival spanning the entire country for the first time this year. They divided the country into four regions centered on Jeonju, Daegu, Gongju and Chuncheon, establishing a structured public participation format running from online preliminaries through four regional rounds to a final competition. This year's event drew 643 participants on 275 teams and about 36,000 visitors.
Kim Hyun-mok, director of the Korean Wave support and cooperation division, officials Lee Ga-jin and Kim Su-jin, and official Jung Ji-in staged the largest-ever joint ministerial K-Expo in Mexico. Working with other ministries, companies and local institutions, they linked content events such as K-pop performances with exhibitions in related industries including food and beauty, building a key bridgehead for expanding K-culture industries in the strategic Latin American market.
Lee Na-eun and Ji Min-ju of the international cultural policy division designed the new Youth K-Culture Global Frontier program to widen overseas opportunities for young people, offering both a self-directed planning track and a work experience track so that participants could pursue activities abroad on their own initiative. Seok Jin-young, director of the sports promotion division, and official Shin Cheol-an raised the central government subsidy for building public sports centers in stages from 3 billion won to 5 billion won per facility, after the amount had been frozen for 30 years. They also created a new lightweight public sports center model that includes essential facilities such as a swimming pool while keeping total project costs under 15 billion won.
Kim Sun-a, director of the publishing, printing and reading promotion division, with officials Seo Yeon-kyung and Lim Su-hyun, worked with other ministries to revise contracting rules so that local bookstores and local bookstore cooperatives have more chances to supply books, and set up a procedure for the culture minister to certify such bookstores and cooperatives. Lee Hye-rim, director of the international sports division, with officials Kim Bo-mi and Lee Seung-yeop, oversaw Korea's participation in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, responding to venues and athlete villages spread across multiple sites by running on-site command centers at five locations for the first time, closely supporting the delegation and helping ensure the safe participation of 1,070 Korean athletes and officials.
Others selected for awards included Chae Hee-gak and Choi Jae-min of the culture technology division, who organized the culture technology ecosystem by launching a public-private body called the Culture Technology Alliance bringing together company representatives, solo creators and experts; Lee Hye-young and Lee Chi-heon of the sports policy division, who led the release of Sports Policy Vision 2030, spelling out policy tasks the public can feel in daily life and laying the groundwork for carrying out medium- and long-term sports policy; Kim Na-hyun of the National Hangeul Museum, who personally developed an automatic generator for cultural heritage registration statements using generative artificial intelligence; and Park Eui-woo of the Korea Policy Broadcasting Institute (KTV), who introduced the first AI anchor in government policy broadcasting.
"I am grateful for the passion and dedication of staff who strengthened K-culture's global competitiveness and enriched people's lives through culture," Choi said. "I hope they will continue to produce policy results the public can feel, with creative ideas and a proactive attitude."