Korea’s Current Status Assessed by Overseas Listeners in 104 Countries A total of 3,911 listeners of KBS World Radio from 104 countries participated in an online survey testing their general understanding of Korea. KBS World Radio is the nation’s only multi-lingual international broadcaster, providing accurate and up-to-date information about Korea in 10 foreign languages including English, Japanese, French, Germany, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese and Indonesian. The survey aimed to find out how KBS World Radio listeners living in all parts of the world perceive Korea. The results of the survey will be broadcast as a part of KBS World Radio’s special program on August 15, commemorating the 64th anniversary of the nation’s liberation. High Level of Interest and Understanding on Korea The results of the survey clearly show that the participants had an accurate and clear understanding of Korea. 97.1% of those surveyed correctly answered that Seoul is the capital city of the Republic of Korea. A majority of those who took part in the survey also knew that Korea has its own language and alphabet (94.5%), that Korea is a member of the OECD (92.4%) and that Korea is a divided nation (85.4%). Most of those polled (95.2%) also knew the name of Korea’s representative food (kimchi), the name of the river that flows through the capital city (90%), the year Korea co-hosted the FIFA World Cup games, the form of its government (81.2%), as well as its geographical location (70%). The Role of KBS World Radio in Promoting Korea to the World The survey showed that an increasing number of overseas listeners are becoming interested in Korea, and their understanding of Korea is expanding by listening to KBS World broadcasts. When asked what medium they use to obtain information related to Korea, participants said they use the Internet (38.9%), KBS World Radio (35.2%), Korean mass media (9.5%), local mass media (7.2%) and talk with Koreans living nearby (3.2%). The results of the survey clearly demonstrate that KBS World Radio, along with the Internet, acts as a gateway to Korea for foreigners around the world. Except in English and Japanese-speaking regions, listeners from all other regions said they obtain information about Korea primarily through KBS World Radio. Korea – Advanced Country, IT Leader, Maker of High-Quality Products The latest survey conducted by KBS World Radio also examined how foreigners view Korea’s brand image. The survey questioned listeners in six different categories including development, democracy, IT technology, products, sports and scenery. The listeners assessed each category on a scale of one to five. Listeners gave high points for most of the categories. ‘Korea is a global IT leader’ received the highest points with 4.38, Korea’s scenic beauty came next with 4.34 points, Korea’s level of development came third with 4.3 points and Korea’s high-quality products came in fourth with 4.17 points. The fact that some 3,000 participants of the survey gave high marks to Korea’s economy, tourism and global competitiveness shows that KBS World Radio’s strategy to heighten the nation’s brand image around the world has been highly effective. For open-ended questions such as “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Korea?”, listeners answered kimchi (10.6%), beauty (4.7%), economic development (4.6%), culture and tradition (3.2%), beautiful scenery (2.8%) and TV dramas (2.7%). The results varied according to different regions. For example, listeners from Vietnamese-speaking regions (37.9%), Japanese-speaking regions (15.2%) and English-speaking regions (7.1%) said the first thing that came to their minds when thinking of Korea was kimchi, while listeners from Arabic-speaking regions said beautiful scenery (19.3%), listeners from the French-speaking regions answered culture and tradition (8.3%) and listeners from Spanish-speaking regions said cutting-edge technology(7.3%). The results show the need for Korea to formulate different strategies for different regions in order to further promote the country.