Ambassadors’ Dialogue

Each year, the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) hosts the United States Ambassador to Korea and the Korean Ambassador to the United States across the United States to embark on a series of public and private programs on U.S.-Korea relations through the U.S. The tour – known as the Ambassadors’ Dialogue on Korea – has been a premier annual KEI event since its inauguration in 1992, usually covering five or more cities over a one week period.

In each city the two Ambassadors address audiences of civic leaders, business representatives, students, veterans, local media, and often state or local political leaders. The Ambassadors address the current security and economic situation on the Korean peninsula and the state of U.S.-Korean relations. The core event in each city is a joint appearance by the two Ambassadors at a luncheon or dinner program sponsored by a local organization. 

In the early 1990s, KEI conducted seminars outside Washington on the economic and business conditions in Korea. Participants in the seminars included officials from Korea as well as experts based in Washington. In 1992, Donald Gregg, then U.S. Ambassador to Korea, offered to participate as a keynote speaker in these economic and business seminars as a way to help get “Korea’s story” out to the American public. Around the same time, Korea’s Ambassador to Washington, Hyun Hong-choo, asked KEI for suggestions which Korea might undertake to attenuate the racial tension and misunderstandings toward the Korean American community in the wake of the Los Angeles riots. As a result, Ambassador Hyun joined Ambassador Gregg in participating in KEI’s economic and business seminar programs, which evolved into the annual Korea Caravan.

In its original phase, the program combined the seminar on economic and business conditions on Korea with keynote speeches by the two Ambassadors. In 2004, the Korea Caravan became the “Ambassadors’ Dialogue on Korea” without the business panels.

Over the years, the Ambassadors’ Dialogue became one of most successful public education and outreach programs on Korea in the United States today. The programs have served to inform public opinion leaders in cities around the country of current developments in Korea and U.S.-Korea relations and the value of the relationship to the United States, to raise the level of interest in Korea more around the country, and to build a network of organizations and community leaders with which KEI can work to develop additional program opportunities. The joint participation of the two Ambassadors in the same program provides a concrete symbol of the closeness of the relationship between these two allies. There is no comparable program with any other country in the world.

For more information on the Ambassadors' Dialogue, please contact Sarah Yun, Director of Public Affairs and Regional Issues, at sky@keia.org.