South Korea, China and Japan have agreed to organize a joint cultural program to make the Pyeonchang 2018 Winter Olympics a cultural sports event.
 
The agreement was reached during the ninth meeting of the three countries’ culture ministers held in Kyoto, Japan on Saturday.
 
South Korea's Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Do Jong-whan said in a keynote speech that he hopes the three countries’ cultural exchanges will further deepen with the latest three-way ministerial meeting. He then expressed hope that the three nations will announce a three-year plan on boosting cultural exchanges at the next ministers’ meeting set to open in China next year.
 
The ministers adopted a declaration that included substantial plans on promoting cultural exchanges as well as vows to boost exchanges among artists and youths and to protect cultural assets.
 
The ministers also selected South Korea’s Busan, China’s Harbin and Japan’s Kanazawa as the cultural cities of East Asia for 2018.
 
The three countries have been holding the meeting of their cultural ministers every year since the first meeting took place in 2007 in Nantong in China’s Jiangsu Province.