Baku, November 22, AZERTAC

In an exclusive interview with AZERTAC, president and CEO of Korean Yonhap news agency Park No-hwang has highlighted the relations between AZERTAC and Yonhap, and shared his impressions about the 5th News Agencies World Congress and the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), which recently wrapped up in Baku.

- Mr. No-hwang, we congratulate you as Yonhap will take over presidency of OANA from AZERTAC for 2019-2022. We would like you to share your impressions with us?

- Actually, it`s a great time for Yonhap news agency and for AZERTAC. AZERTAC will take the leadership of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies. So I really expect much from AZERTAC. OANA has worked well in the past three years, but I do believe that under AZERTAC`s leadership the cooperation would be further expanded among the agencies. Yonhap will take responsibility after AZERTAC. It`s a great opportunity for the two agencies to cooperate with each other. I have met with AZERTAC`s Director General Aslan Aslanov and we talked about a range of issues. I explained him that Yonhap news agency is preparing a new platform, which is designed to allow news agencies exchange each other`s content. It will help all the news agencies in OANA better use each other`s content. Yonhap plans to launch this platform before the Winter Olympic Games which will be held in Korea in 2018.

Yonhap News agency's technical manager won the OANA prize in Baku. He plays a leading role in developing the new platform. Yonhap will put some story, including video clips, stories and photos then other news agencies can also put content on the same platform and then we can use the content of each other. The technical management from Yonhap just met with AZERTAC`s technicians and I think the experts talked about how the things will go on because the computer systems may be different. But we are confident that everything will be okay. We can dispatch our technician to Azerbaijan to this end.

- The 5th News Agencies World Congress was remarkable in terms of the issues on its agenda and geography of participating countries. It was widely covered by the world media, including in Korea. We would be happy to hear your views about this international event.

- Actually, this Congress laid a corner stone for the participating news agencies because many news agencies face new challenges in the new digital era. More people get their news from mobile phones now, and not from newspapers. The Congress focused on how news agencies can be viable in the era of these challenges.

At the Congress, I was deeply touched to hear President Ilham Aliyev`s address. I felt his strong will to develop the country. Now I have a better understanding of the history of Azerbaijan. His address made many representatives from news agencies learn more about Azerbaijan`s culture, history and political situation.

As regards the coverage of the event, I want to emphasize that Yonhap is a leading 24 hours news channel. We dispatched our correspondent from Istanbul, who extensively covered the Congress and wrote stories. These news stories gave the Korean viewers and readers a better understanding of this congress and Azerbaijan in general.

- A group of Congress participants had an audience with President Ilham Aliyev. During the meeting, you said that may be you are the first Korean journalist who met with the Azerbaijani President. President Ilham Aliyev hailed Azerbaijani-Korean relations. What were your impressions about that meeting?

- Actually, I was really honored to be there and to meet with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. He was very kind, and I was surprised to know that he had a really good memory about Korea. In the year of 2007, Mr. President visited Seoul and then in 2015 former Korean prime minister Chung Hong-won visited Baku. He exactly remembered that, and I was really surprised. I was glad that Mr. President told me that many Azerbaijani people love Korean goods, including electrical items and Korean cars. The President really expects closer cooperation between the two countries based on mutual understanding.

- AZERTAC and Yonhap successfully cooperate bilaterally and within international organizations. The foundations of these relations were laid when you and Aslan Aslanov signed an agreement in Seoul. Across the last period, how do you rate the efforts of the two agencies to develop cooperation?

- I think AZERTAC and Yonhap news agency have the same goal. This goal is to enhance cooperation between news agencies. I earlier talked to AZERTAC Director General Aslan Aslanov. I told him that as AZERTAC is assuming a leading role, Yonhap news agency will support AZERTAC. And when Yonhap news agency will take over this leadership, I do believe that AZERTAC will support us too. Thank you.

Anar Rzayev

Correspondent