Officials and participants for Yeosu Expo 2012 reaffirmed they would not let the ongoing radiation crisis in Japan have any effect on preparations for the international event, during a second planning meeting at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul, yesterday. 

A total of 252 participants from 99 countries, along with five international organizations, attended the meeting, in which various expo leaders made comments and announced progress on the event scheduled to run in the South Gyeongsang coastal town next year from May 12 to Sept. 12.

Kang Dong-suk, chairman of the Yeosu Expo Organizing Committee; Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales, secretary general of the Bureau of International Exhibitions (BIE); and Lee Joon-hee, the commissioner of Expo 2012, all spoke at the meeting.

“I cannot say that we will be free [from the effects],” said Loscertales when asked whether radiation from Japan would affect the Yeosu World’s Fair, which has an ocean theme. 

“The nuclear crisis will influence the Yeosu Expo in a positive way,” Loscertales added. “It will tell everyone that no one is free from this type of catastrophe and that we cannot simply rely only on technology. Yeosu has to inform its visitors that we are not free from this [sort of] disaster.”

Loscertales also emphasized that Yeosu’s cyber expo, in which the expo’s exhibits will be displayed online, will bring the experience of the event to people around the world who cannot make it personally.

“With sports events, you watch it on television. But with the expo, which will run for three months, you cannot make news every day. The media and Internet are very important [in this aspect],” Loscertales said, who added that millions of visitors are expected to attend the event in person or online.

There is a chance that some of those visitors will be North Koreans, with the chairman of the committee hinting that North Korea may be a participant in the expo.

“North Korea is a member of the BIE and I met the North Korean representative in Paris last year during a meeting for the exhibition,” Kang said. “I told him, ‘It would be great if you could participate in our expo.’ Although I know he doesn’t have the authority, he gave me a knowing smile that I decided to understand in a positive light.” 

South Korea hosted the 1993 World’s Fair in Daejeon with the theme of “The Challenge of a New Road of Development.” 

“Although it brought success to the city, it was very difficult to know the exact theme of the expo,” Loscertales said.

The theme of Yeosu’s event is “The Living Ocean and Coast.” Loscertales said the Yeosu Expo committee is going through a “good, thematic development.” 

Another organizing committee meeting will be held in February, just three months before the World’s Fair in Yeosu opens. 

The first meeting was held last April.


By Christine Kim [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr]