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Poster for the Global Korea Forum 2024. (courtesy of the Ministry of Unification)

British Ambassador to South Korea Colin Crooks said he would not be attending the Global Korea Forum, an event organized by the South Korean Ministry of Unification scheduled to take place in Seoul on Tuesday.

The reason cited was the overwhelming number of forum speakers who are male — a point that Crooks said ran counter to the value of gender equality.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the British Embassy in Seoul issued a message stating that Crooks would not be able to attend this year’s forum, scheduled to take place the following week.

The message stressed the British Embassy in Seoul’s support for the value of gender equality and the opinion that events are made all the better when participants share diverse opinions.

The Global Korea Forum is an expanded version of the previous Korea Global Forum, which has been held by the ministry every year since 2010. The expansions reflect the “Aug. 15 Reunification Doctrine” laid out by President Yoon Suk-yeol on the recent National Liberation Day holiday.

Over 20 experts and other luminaries are scheduled to speak, including former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former national security adviser Kim Sung-han, and Ri Il-kyu, former counselor at the North Korean embassy in Cuba.

But only one of the scheduled speakers is a woman.

In response to the British Embassy’s announcement, the Unification Ministry said, “From the standpoint of respecting gender diversity, we are working to invite capable and competent experts to international conferences, regardless of their gender.”

“For this forum, we selected and reached out to a mixture of candidates regardless of gender, nationality, or other factors in order to invite experts on Korean Peninsula issues from the global community who were suited to the topics in each section, but as many female experts notified us that they would be unable to participate due to various factors including attendance at academic conferences, lectures, or overseas travels, the lineup unavoidably consisted largely of male speakers,” it added.

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

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