(C) Overseas Koreans Agency (OKA)
The Overseas Koreans Agency (Commissioner Kim Kyoung-hyup) announced that throughout 2025, it successfully operated the "Visiting Education for Understanding Overseas Koreans" program 70 times, visiting elementary, middle, high schools, and universities nationwide to explain the lives and roles of overseas Koreans to students.
This program is designed to explain, from a student's perspective, who our compatriots living abroad are, how they live, and what kind of relationship they maintain with the Republic of Korea. Staff members from the Overseas Koreans Agency visited schools personally to deliver lectures, and in some sessions, external experts also participated.
This year's education was conducted in 70 sessions across 63 schools from March to December, with a total of 6,243 participants ranging from elementary school to university students. The sessions included 14 universities, 5 high schools, 1 middle school, and 29 elementary schools (with some schools hosting multiple sessions).
To proactively raise awareness of overseas Koreans, the agency expanded the program by approximately 2.5 times this year compared to 2024, when 27 sessions were conducted for about 2,400 participants.
Through this education, students had the opportunity to understand that compatriots living abroad are not merely "Koreans living in a foreign country," but individuals deeply connected to the history, economy, and culture of the Republic of Korea. In particular, it was evaluated that interest in the roles overseas Koreans have played within our society and on the global stage has increased.
Based on these experiences, the Overseas Koreans Agency plans to broaden the scope of its educational targets beyond schools next year. For the general public, education will be conducted in connection with regional cultural spaces such as libraries, and for civil servants, an online curriculum regarding overseas Koreans will be operated through the "Nara Learning Center."
An official from the Overseas Koreans Agency stated, "Understanding overseas Koreans is not a matter concerning only those living abroad, but a task that our entire society must contemplate together. We will continue to provide education so that all citizens can naturally come to understand overseas Koreans."
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