By Jason Lim

Korea-related issues have been in the international media lately. The kidnapping of Korean Christian volunteer workers by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the passage of Resolution 121 in the U.S. House of Representatives were treated as major international stories.

Even the brief power outage at a Samsung chipmaking plant made the news throughout the world. Of course, it seems that whenever North Korea clears its throat, everyone stops to listen. In a way, all this attention highlights the globalization of Korea as a newsmaker.

However, most of these news stories about Korea that garner international exposure tend to be about tragedy, conflict, or accidents.

Even the passage of the resolution on ``comfort women’’ was largely portrayed as a triumph of grass-roots mobilization of Korean David against the powerful Japanese Goliath fought on the battlefield of U.S. Congress. Of course, news stories will focus on the unexpected and sensational drama. That’s the nature of the beast.

This is why the recently announced plan by ABC TV Boston (WCVB TV 5) to feature Seoul as the sole Asian representative of a leading world city is such a unique opportunity for Korea to be shown for what it has done rather than just for what has happened to it.

As part of a project called ``FutureBoston," ABC TV Boston (WCVB TV 5) is traveling to world-class cities that are leaders in urban design, technology, arts, and culture. This year, they are traveling to Vancouver, Dublin, and Seoul.

In the past, they traveled to Paris and Barcelona, and their coverage won the duPont Columbia award, which is the television broadcasting world's equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize. Seoul is the only Asian city selected for the series.

This won’t just be a TV show. It is designed to be a learning experience for Boston. ``FutureBoston" will launch a multi-layered civic dialogue that will examine how Boston can address future challenges, drawing on lessons learned from the cities that they visit.

The bulk of the series will focus on Seoul's status as a world leader in IT and technology. As befits a show based in Boston, the proverbial city of education, this portion of the series is done in partnership with M.I.T.

They are profiling the city's wireless technology, cutting-edge products in mobile phones and computers, and research in fields like e-medicine and health.

But more than the technology, the show will also profile Seoul's urban design: how the city melds ancient and modern architecture, creating ambitious urban green projects such as the restored Cheonggycheon stream.

In addition, they will also film a show on arts and culture to introduce Americans to Korean food, traditional arts, and, of course, hallyu or a Korean pop culture boom overseas.

The driving force behind the show’s focus on Seoul is Sangita Chandra, a producer of ``Chronicle,” an award-winning news show on ABC TV Boston. She was also the president of the New England chapter of Asian American Journalists Association from 2002-2004.

Besides her obvious professional achievements, what makes Chandra unique is that her full name is Sangita Lee Chandra. You see, Chandra has a dual Indian and Korean heritage. In fact, her father, Vipan Chandra, who was born and raised in northern India, studied at Yonsei University in the 1960s where he met Lee Myong-suk, his Korean wife, a journalism student at Ewha University.

He then went on to get his Ph.D. in Korean studies from Harvard and became a well-known Korean history specialist. As such, Chandra has a natural connection to Korean culture.

Of course, Seoul was chosen for this program because of its unique merits as a leading city of the world. However, we all realize that merits alone often are not enough.

In creating anything worthwhile, you always need to throw in an essential pinch of human initiative into the recipe to make it come alive in all its wonderful flavor. And that essential ingredient can be described as personal leadership.

Chandra is an example of hidden reservoirs of personal leadership that are helping to bring the richness of the Korean experience to the world.

Behind-the-scenes efforts like hers are helping Korea to fully take its place on the world stage _ as a creator of a positive human experience rather than just a maker of sensational news _ and add to the common stream of global narrative from which anyone can take a sip. This is true globalization.

Jason Lim is a fellow at Harvard Korea Institute researching Asian leadership models. He can be reached at jasonlim@post.harvard.edu.