S. Korea, Turkey to strengthen cooperation in broadcasting, communications

South Korea and Turkey have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of broadcasting and communications, South Korean officials said Friday. Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission dealing with South Korea's broadcasting and communications policies, reached the agreement in Turkey with Davut Dursun, president of the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council, Choi's agency said. South Korea is scheduled to switch over from analogue broadcasting to digital in 2013 while Turkey's digitalization is due in 2015 following the start of its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service early this year. During the talks at the Turkish council office, Choi gave details of Seoul's plan for the transition to digital broadcasting and offered to share its experience to help build Turkey's IPTV service, the agency said. Emphasizing that South Korean communications firms have much interest in doing business with Turkish companies, Choi asked for Turkey to help promote exchanges between private firms, it said. Dursun responded to the call with a pledge to arrange a meeting of working-level officials from the two countries for progress toward more substantive cooperation, it said. For his part, the Turkish official asked for South Korea's active assistance for its plan to introduce a satellite-based Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) service, it said.