British ambassador, writing contest winners stress gender equality

The competition celebrated 140 years of Korea-U.K. relations and supported the U.K.’s new International Women and Girls Strategy from 2023 to 2030.

Colin Crooks, the British ambassador to Korea, center, poses for a photo with winners of a writing competition hosted by the British Embassy in central Seoul and the Korea JoongAng Daily. From left, Lee Da-gyeong, Lee Hwa-young, Crooks, Park Da-in and Kim Min-seo. [PARK SANG-MOON]

For Lee Hwa-young, a 15-year-old student of North London Collegiate School in Jeju, a brighter future begins with making life better for women.

“In order to protect every human’s right, the key problem to resolve is gender equality,” said Lee, who dreams to become an international lawyer.

Lee was one of dozens of female students across Korea’s middle and high schools who took part in a writing competition organized by the British Embassy in Seoul and the Korea JoongAng Daily last month.

The competition celebrated 140 years of Korea-U.K. relations and supported the U.K.’s new International Women and Girls Strategy from 2023 to 2030.

On Monday, Lee and the other three winners of the contest were invited to the British Embassy in Seoul to spend a day as ambassadors.

The four students joined British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks for the embassy’s working day. As one-day ambassadors, their duties included attending meetings and talking with women business leaders and officials.

Lee and Kim Min-seo, a 14-year-old student at Jeonghwa Middle School in Daegu, were the two winners of the middle school division. Park Da-in and Lee Da-gyeong, both 16-year-old students from Hana Academy Seoul, were the winners in the high school division.

“We launched our new [International Women and Girls] strategy in March to coincide with this year’s International Women’s Day,” Colin Crooks, the British ambassador to Korea, told the Korea JoongAng Daily at the embassy on Monday.

International Women’s Day falls on March 8 every year.

“And the idea is that women and girls should be at the heart of the U.K.’s foreign policy.”

British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks, second from right, takes a selfie with winners of the essay writing contest at the British embassy in Seoul on Monday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

The U.K.’s new strategy for women and girls has three main objectives, namely, the so-called three Es — educating, empowering and ending gender-based and sexual violence.

The ambassador-for-a-day program supports the first two objectives, says Crooks.

Monday’s program is one of several programs run by the British embassy for women’s empowerment, including the Empower program that invites young women in the early to mid-stages of their careers to learn about businesses and industries and connect with mentors.

Among the officials the student ambassadors met that day was Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hyun-sook.

The minister and the four ambassadors talked about gender-related issues, from gender equality to low birth rates.

“The country needs to make many efforts for women’s political and economic empowerment,” the minister said, referring to Korea's low international rankings.

Korea ranked 105th out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap index last month, a drop from last year’s 99.

The minister also pointed out that women make up only 19 percent of lawmakers in the National Assembly in Korea, in stark contrast to countries like New Zealand, where the ratio rises as high as 50 percent.

She added that much has been achieved in recent decades, though much remains for the government to do.

The students also raised the issue of low birth rates with the minister.

Korea has had the lowest fertility rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since 2013. The fertility rate dropped to a new low at 0.78 in February this year.

“The low birth rate issue in Korea is very serious,” Kim said.

“The country has made efforts to resolve the issue, but to little effect so far. [...] The ministry has therefore implemented policies for childcare such as the ‘personal childcare at home’ system to reduce the burden of childcare.”

The ministry offers such a system to provide childcare services at home and subsidizes families who apply for the service depending on household income.

“It was in a way relieving to hear that the ministry was doing well and doing so much for us,” Lee said after meeting the minister.

British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks, right, talks with winners of the essay writing contest at the British embassy in Seoul on Monday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Crooks, a seasoned diplomat who began his overseas career as the second secretary at the British Embassy in Seoul in 1995, took on a rare role as the first British diplomat to consecutively head the mission in Pyongyang and then Seoul.

Posted to Pyongyang from 2018 to 2021, Crooks was appointed the British ambassador in Seoul in the summer of 2021.

Noting the British envoy's unique background, Park Da-in from Hana Seoul Academy asked how North and South Korea should maintain their relationship.

“I think South Korea is doing everything that it can,” said Crooks.

“I don’t think there is a single thing that you can say that this is the key to unblocking North Korea,” he said, adding that many elements must be considered to keep peace with North Korea.

In particular, he said although the international community should put pressure on Pyongyang for its illegal development of nuclear weapons and missiles, it should also keep "the route to dialogue" open.

The four contestants and the British ambassador also discussed the power of cultural diplomacy, the topic about which the contestants wrote their essays.

Crooks said Korea and the U.K. will be celebrating the development of their soft power over the last 140 years. Britain established diplomatic ties with Korea in 1883 and again in 1949, after Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). Britain established diplomatic ties with North Korea in 2000. Ambassador-level diplomats were posted for the first time to Seoul in 1957 and to Pyongyang in 2002.

“We see this year as a chance to look forward to the future, and we'll be marking U.K.-Korea relations in many ways, celebrating our trading relationship with the launch of the renegotiations of our free trade agreement, [...] celebrating our relations and security and foreign policy,” he said.

“But one of the other things that we're keen to celebrate is our soft power relations. The U.K. and Korea are both soft power superpowers.

“We know about the K-wave, that's been celebrated a great deal in the U.K. Here in Korea, I think U.K. culture is greatly known and appreciated, and cultural diplomacy is one of the things that we're also keen to promote.”

The students said cultural diplomacy works at a people-to-people level, and building friendships and strengthening diplomatic ties, especially in the era of social media.

Monday marked the second year of the ambassadors-for-a-day program in Seoul. The British ambassador said more women will be seen in leadership roles in the future if more programs like this are provided.

Crooks added that many British senior diplomats are women, including the U.K.'s envoys to China, Japan, France and Germany.

“It is all about giving people the same opportunities and not stereotyping or thinking that men are associated with certain careers and women with certain other careers. We all have the same abilities; we should have the same opportunities.”

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]