Turning to Arirang now, a weekly forum on the Korean Wave began last week in Seoul. It's being billed as a place where industry leaders and experts can gather to determine what's going to be the next big thing. (오수영)Oh Soo-young was there and filed this report.
With the popularity of Korean pop music, TV dramas and even beauty products sweeping across the globe, the hallyu or Korean wave industry is growing by the year.

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Korean Wave Industry Leaders Forum launched

To keep up the momentum, the culture ministry has launched a policy-making forum.

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Yoon Tae-yong / Ministry of Culture
(Korean)
"By gathering the respective leaders, officials and experts, we can discuss the future of Hallyu. This will be based on the "convergence" of various culture genres such as K-Pop, TV dramas or animations with ICT, producing a brand new cultural product."

The weekly forum kicked off on Thursday, with industry officials, leaders and members of the public attending the inaugural ceremony.

Members of Infinite, a popular K-POP boyband, were instated as the official endorsers of the organizing committee.

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Korean Wave to be fueled by 'cultural convergence'

This was followed by special lectures on the importance of cultural convergence and how to spread it on an international scale.

Among the guest speakers, Kim Sang-hun, the CEO of Korea's biggest online portal, Naver, emphasized the need to develop more digital platforms where global fans of Korean culture, or K-Culture, can create their own unique material.

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Hong Myung-ho

[REPORTER]
Oh Soo-young

For the next ten weeks, other leaders and experts in culture, sports, food and entertainment will also share their insights through lectures and discussions.