The Em­bassy of the Re­pub­lic of Ko­rea host­ed a spec­tac­u­lar cul­tur­al event at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) to com­mem­o­rate the 40th an­niver­sary of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions be­tween Ko­rea and T&T.

Cel­e­brat­ing four decades of friend­ship and co­op­er­a­tion, the evening fea­tured a daz­zling per­for­mance by the renowned Jin­do Na­tion­al Gu­gak Cen­tre, high­light­ing the depth of cul­tur­al ex­change be­tween the two na­tions.

The event drew over 1,000 at­ten­dees, in­clud­ing high-lev­el gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps. Among the dis­tin­guished guests were:

Sean Sobers, Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs

Dar­rel Al­la­har, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter

Col­in Go­sine, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary, Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try

Gwyneth-Ann Mor­ris-Alexan­der, Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary, Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment

Re­i­ta Tou­s­saint, Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary, Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try

Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Andy Hutchin­son

Al­so in at­ten­dance were mem­bers of the lo­cal Ko­re­an com­mu­ni­ty and me­dia rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

In his wel­come ad­dress, Ko­re­an Am­bas­sador Sei­joong Kwon ex­pressed heart­felt ap­pre­ci­a­tion to at­ten­dees, say­ing: “It is a great ho­n­our to cel­e­brate 40 years of diplo­mat­ic ties with Trinidad and To­ba­go. I ex­tend my sin­cere thanks to every­one here on be­half of the Ko­re­an gov­ern­ment and peo­ple.”

He re­called the es­tab­lish­ment of Ko­rea’s diplo­mat­ic pres­ence in Port-of-Spain in 1985, which was el­e­vat­ed to a full em­bassy in 2009. Am­bas­sador Kwon un­der­scored Ko­rea’s com­mit­ment to deep­en­ing co­op­er­a­tion in key ar­eas such as cli­mate change, cul­tur­al in­dus­tries, and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

A mem­o­rable high­light of the evening was the un­veil­ing of the of­fi­cial 40th an­niver­sary lo­go and slo­gan: “40 Years To­geth­er, Part­ners for the Fu­ture”—a sym­bol of the two coun­tries’ shared vi­sion for sus­tain­able part­ner­ship and con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion.

The Am­bas­sador al­so not­ed the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of the oc­ca­sion, as it marked the first-ever per­for­mance in T&T by the pres­ti­gious Jin­do Na­tion­al Gu­gak Cen­ter. He ex­tend­ed spe­cial thanks to the per­form­ers, or­gan­is­ers, and col­lab­o­ra­tors who helped bring the evening to life.

De­liv­er­ing con­grat­u­la­to­ry re­marks, Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers praised the grow­ing mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing and cul­tur­al ex­change be­tween the two coun­tries. He de­scribed Ko­rea and T&T as ex­em­plary part­ners and ac­knowl­edged the ris­ing lo­cal in­ter­est in Ko­re­an cul­ture—in­clud­ing its lan­guage, cui­sine, K-Dra­mas, and K-POP—as a tes­ta­ment to strong peo­ple-to-peo­ple ties.

The evening's main per­for­mance, un­der the artis­tic di­rec­tion of Jeong-gyeong Park, trans­port­ed the au­di­ence through cen­turies of Ko­re­an tra­di­tion with a cap­ti­vat­ing pro­gramme of mu­sic and dance. High­lights in­clud­ed:

Sam­do Non­gak Garak, a dy­nam­ic per­cus­sion quar­tet

Daegeum San­jo, a bam­boo flute so­lo

Buchaechum, the el­e­gant Ko­re­an fan dance

A soul­ful ren­di­tion of the Love Song from the Chun­hyang­ga pan­sori opera

The vi­brant cel­e­bra­to­ry folk dance Dae­dong­nori

The 1,200-seat NA­PA the­atre echoed with ap­plause as tra­di­tion­al Ko­re­an artistry struck a deep chord with lo­cal au­di­ences.

Pri­or to the con­cert, guests were treat­ed to an im­mer­sive “Pre-Show Ko­re­an Ex­pe­ri­ence” in the NA­PA lob­by. The space was trans­formed in­to a live­ly cul­tur­al vil­lage, fea­tur­ing tra­di­tion­al Ko­re­an games such as Gong­gi, Jegicha­gi, and Ttakji Chi­gi. A high-en­er­gy K-POP dance per­for­mance by the 2025 K-POP World Fes­ti­val win­ners wowed the crowd, with in­ter­ac­tive seg­ments that de­light­ed both chil­dren and adults.

Adding a mod­ern di­men­sion to the event, booths host­ed by Ko­re­an com­pa­nies—in­clud­ing Kia Mo­tors, KGM (for­mer­ly Ssangy­ong Mo­tors), and Aven­ta TT (dis­trib­u­tors of Ko­re­an cos­met­ics)—show­cased in­no­v­a­tive prod­ucts, fos­ter­ing brand vis­i­bil­i­ty and busi­ness en­gage­ment.

This land­mark cel­e­bra­tion not on­ly ho­n­oured four decades of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions, but al­so served as a vi­brant plat­form for cul­tur­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion and com­mer­cial out­reach.

As the evening drew to a close, the Em­bassy of the Re­pub­lic of Ko­rea reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to deep­en­ing its cul­tur­al and diplo­mat­ic ties with Trinidad and To­ba­go and ex­pressed op­ti­mism about fu­ture ini­tia­tives that will con­tin­ue to en­rich this en­dur­ing part­ner­ship.