From July to October of 2020, APLN and The Korea Times, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea hosted an essay writing contest open to all undergraduate and graduate students over the world. Students wrote on topics ranging from the North Korean nuclear problem to emerging technologies. From a total of 73 submissions, eight winning essays were selected through a careful, unbiased and thorough examination by senior APLN members, Prof. Jun Bong-geun, Dr Peter Hayes, Dr Manpreet Sethi, Ambassador John Tilemann, and Dr Tong Zhao.

On 27th November, APLN and The Korea Times hosted the Award Ceremony in Seoul, South Korea to congratulate the winners of the Essay Contest. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, students from overseas attended the ceremony online.

The winners of the contest are as follows:

1st Place: Dong-suk Yoo of Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, USA.
2nd Place: Alexander M. Hynd of University of New South Wales, Australia.
Fiona Hye-min Cho of Ewha Women’s University, South Korea.

Honorable Mentions:
Sang-hoon Kim (Korea University, South Korea)
Chul-min Kim (KAIST, South Korea)
Ji-hun Park (Yonsei University, South Korea)
In-tae Jang (KyungHee University, South Korea)
Yong-su Cho (Hanyang University, South Korea)

Congratulations to all the winners. Thank you to all the participants and we look forward to engaging with more students in the future.