D.P.R. Korea    19-22 August 2000 During his visit to D.P.R. Korea, the Director-General met with Mr. Kim Yong Nam, P Mr.resident of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly. The Director-General shared the view of the President with regard to the importance of preserving cultural identity and cultural diversity in the age of globalisation.  The Director-General also held meetings and exchanged views with various government ministers involved in UNESCO projects: Mr. Byon Yong Rip, Minister of Education; Mr. Kang Nung Su, Minister of Culture; and Mr. Choe Si Hon, President of the National Commission for UNESCO and Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, together with Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura

The D.P.R. Korea ministers highly appreciated the concerted efforts that UNESCO has made to promote educational, scientific and cultural activities in D.P.R. Korea. The Director-General confirmed with Minister Kang that UNESCO would continue to cooperate with the D.P.R. Korea authorities for the preservation of D.P.R. Korea’s cultural and natural heritage. He also mentioned the recent UNESCO donation of 150 tonnes of textbook paper and expressed UNESCO’s readiness to provide further assistance to D.P.R. Korea in such fields as English language and computer science teaching, cultural heritage preservation and equipment purchased under the framework of Funds-in-Trust.

Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura visited Koguryo Tombs

China    22-25 August 2000 While in China, the Director-General met with many important state leaders: Premier Zhu Rongji; Mr. Sun Jiazheng, Minister of Culture; Mme Zhu Lilan, Minister of Science and Technology; Mme Wei Yu, Vice-Minister of Education and Chairperson of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO; Mme Chen Zhili, Minister of Education; and Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Director-General and the Chinese government expressed their mutual wish to extend cooperation between UNESCO and China. Right photo: Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura,  meeting with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji

Mme Wei Yu, Chairperson of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, offered a detailed explanation of UNESCO activities in China. Mme Wei also proposed several areas for possible future cooperation between UNESCO and China, especially China’s willingness to host a meeting of the Ministers of Education of E-9 countries.   The Director-General expressed his appreciation to the Chinese people and authorities for their efforts in the preservation of both intangible and tangible heritage. He also extended his congratulations on the Special Cinema Prize for the Culture of Peace presented by UNESCO Headquarters to the Chinese director Mr. Zhang Yuan for his film Seventeen Years. During his stay in China, the Director-General held a press conference on his recent visit to D.P.R. Korea. He also attended individual interviews, including one exclusively for Japanese journalists and several with the Chinese press, including CCTV, CRI and Xinhua News Agency.

The National Commissions from China, D.P.R. Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea participated in the meeting, which included three Secretaries-General from China, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea, and two Deputy Secretaries-General from D.P.R. Korea and Japan. The Secretary-General of the National Commission from the Republic of Kyrgyzstan attended the meeting as an observer for the first time.

As the previous meetings had done, the third meeting provided a valuable opportunity to exchange information and to promote better understanding among the National Commissions. Participants also discussed follow-up actions to the Tashkent Conference of National Commissions in the Asia-Pacific Region that was held in July 2000.

One concrete outcome of the third meeting was to agree on the organisation of a sub-regional Performing Arts Festival by Children and Youth as a means to promote mutual understanding and peace through cultural exchange in the East Asian sub-region. It was decided that the Festival would take place during the summer of 2001 in China, following the kind offer made by the Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission.

Children’s Painting Contest and Exhibition on “Culture of Peace--Living Together in Harmony”

To celebrate the International Year for the Culture of Peace, the occasion of the Third Meeting of the National Commissions was also used to organise a children's painting contest on the theme “Culture of Peace--Living Together in Harmony”. Seventy paintings drawn by children between seven- and 12-years-old from China, D.P.R. Korea, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia and Republic of Korea were exhibited at the UNESCO Centre of Macau from 25 September to 8 October 2000. A ribbon-cutting and awards ceremony to inaugurate the exhibition was held in the presence of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Government of Macau SAR and the Secretaries-and Deputy Secretaries-General of the National Commissions from the six participating countries.

The paintings were selected at national contests organised prior to the exhibition. Fourteen  were further selected to be reproduced in a 2001 calendar in commemoration of the International Decade for Culture of Peace as well as the fruitful cooperation among the five East Asian countries and Macau. The calendar was made possible by the kind contributions of the UNESCO Centre of Macau, the Korean National Commission for UNESCO and Kodak (China) Ltd.