Vietnam News Agency's General Director Vũ Việt Trang and Yonhap's President and CEO Hwang Dae-il at the at the agreement signing ceremony on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Đức Thắng

SEOUL — The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Yonhap News Agency signed a professional cooperation agreement in Seoul on Tuesday, positioning digital transformation and AI at the heart of their media partnership.

The event took place during the Việt Nam–RoK Economic Forum, witnessed by Party General Secretary Tô Lâm and Korean Prime Minister Kim Min Seok as part of the Vietnamese leader’s state visit to the East Asian country.

Under the new framework, the two news agencies will continue their information exchange while focusing on enhancing Yonhap's Vietnamese-language news service, a specialised product developed with the VNA's support, which was launched on the day Party chief Lâm arrived in Seoul.

At the talks later the same day at Yonhap’s headquarters, VNA General Director Vũ Việt Trang praised the robust cooperation between the two agencies over the past years, despite challenges ranging from fierce competition in the digital age to restructuring pressures.

She said the VNA has effectively leveraged Yonhap’s coverage of the RoK’s policies towards Việt Nam, citizen affairs, and multilateral cooperation mechanisms. She proposed further deepening the exchange of economic and people-to-people news in a more substantive and results-oriented manner.

In discussing cooperation for major events, she recommended improving the exchange of information and experiences in news operations, especially during large-scale events.

She highlighted the importance of cooperation in combating AI-generated fake news and called for regular updates on solutions.

Additionally, she advocated for increased professional exchanges both in-person and online, as well as collaboration in content production.

Hwang Dae-il, President and CEO of Yonhap, expressed his hope that the Vietnamese news service would become a vital channel delivering rapid and accurate news about the RoK, not only to the 300,000 Vietnamese residents in the country but also to Vietnamese-speaking audiences worldwide.

The service, he said, operates through an innovative process combining large language models (LLM), representing what Yonhap considers a new way in international information delivery, with plans to expand to additional languages.

In this era of AI-centred digital innovation, cooperation between the two news agencies not only serves economic exchanges but also strengthens mutual understanding between the people of both nations. — VNA/VNS