Collection

The Overseas Koreans Foundation was established under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Oct. 30, 1997, by the Overseas Koreans Foundation Act with a view to helping overseas Koreans around the world keep their Korean identity and live as exemplary members in countries of residence.

Serving as a bridge between 52 million Koreans at home and 7.5 million Koreans abroad, the foundation carries out various business projects such as ‘overseas Koreans exchange projects’, ‘research projects of overseas Korean communities’, ‘education, culture, and publicity projects for overseas Koreans’, ‘projects for overseas Koreans’ human rights assistance’, ‘projects for enhancing awareness of overseas Koreans’, etc.

The history of Korea has always been with overseas Koreans. They carried out independence movement in places around the world and the independence movement funds they raised were of great help to the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. They voluntarily participated in the Korean Civil War and they have always been out actively to help their homeland of Korea in every historic moment such as the Seoul Olympic Games and the IMF financial crisis in 1997.

The foundation takes the lead in promoting the awareness of overseas Koreans by shedding new light on the contribution to Korea that they have so far made and by organizing the materials and records on their cultural activities and their emigration history the overseas Korean communities have kept.

The foundation holds a literary contest for overseas Koreans every year with a view to helping them to keep their Korean language skills and enhancing the understanding between Koreans both at home and abroad. The foundation makes and distributes its magazine of ‘A Window into Overseas Koreans’ Literature’ with award-winning works.

‘A Window into Overseas Koreans’, a newsletter of overseas Koreans, is published every month. The newsletter serves as a channel of communication between Korea and overseas Korean communities. The foundation conducts a survey of Korean native’s perceptions of overseas Koreans regularly, which aims at raising awareness of the importance of overseas Koreans and obtaining basic data for designing policies for overseas Koreans.

The materials the Overseas Koreans Foundation publishes regularly are curated for the Digital Archives of the National Library of Korea. It is hoped that the curated data contributes to promoting the correct awareness of overseas Korean people and creating national consensus among all of the Koreans at home and abroad.

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