SEOUL, (Yonhap) -- Scores of ethnic Korean journalists living abroad gathered on Monday for an annual conference in Seoul to discuss their role in bettering the national image and helping cultivate the identity of overseas Koreans, organizers said.

About 70 journalists from 22 countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Nepal, are taking part in the 12th Overseas Korean Journalists Convention that opened at Korea Press Center in central Seoul, they said.

Co-hosted by the Overseas Korean Media Association and Yonhap News Agency, this year's meeting will last until Saturday under the theme, "Finding roles of overseas Korean journalists to improve Korea's national image and help cultivate the identity of overseas Koreans."

"Ethnic Korean journalists fulfilled their mission for the development of overseas Korean communities, becoming eyes and ears of 7.3 million Koreans overseas," Yi Sung-pong, chairman of the association, said in his speech during the ceremony.

Song Hyun-seung, the president and CEO of Yonhap, asked the participants to keep contributing to the development of the nation, praising them for "faithfully carrying out a bridge role" between their motherland and the overseas Korean communities.

Song called for ethnic Korean journalists to make efforts to "develop communities of ethnic Koreans overseas" and pledged that Yonhap News Agency will work together with them as a "hub of news for communities for ethnic Koreans."

The journalists will attend an event on Tuesday to select global Korea-PR ambassadors among domestic university students in cooperation with the non-governmental organization Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), according to the organizers.

The participants will hold a symposium titled "Dokdo and the role of overseas Koreans" on Wednesday and go on a tour of the southeastern cities of Gyeongju and Uljin from Thursday to Saturday.

Dokdo, South Korea's easternmost islets on the East Sea, has been a source of diplomatic tension between South Korea and Japan because of Tokyo's territorial claims.

Launched in 2002 with some 40 member companies, the Overseas Korean Media Association has developed into a global network covering about 130 newspapers and broadcasting stations for ethnic Korean residents in 63 cities in 32 countries all over the world.

The association has annually hosted a convention of overseas Korean journalists in Seoul since then.