The Yongsan-gu office will be connecting students from its sister city in Vietnam with top universities within its district to help promote Korea’s image, officials said Monday.

Starting this year, the central Seoul district will nominate an exemplary student each year from Qui Nhon City for a full scholarship at Sookmyung Women’s University and Dankook University.

The city on Vietnam’s central southern coast established a sisterhood relationship with Yongsan district, home to more than 247,000 residents, in June 1997.

The first student to receive full support is Buithai Lyly, a first-year geography major at Quy Nhon University. The 19 year old will attend Sookmyung this March to study public administration.

The Yongsan ward office signed the foreign student support cooperation agreement with Sookmyung in October and with Dankook last month. Yongsan is the first of the 25 self-governing districts in Seoul to establish such an agreement. Foreign students will begin attending Dankook University in the second semester this year.

High school graduates and university freshmen who are at the top of their class, show interest in Korea and have adequate English skills will be chosen for the program.

“The district is trying to promote Korea by selecting students from areas of limited educational opportunity,” said Ye Jin-a, an education support official at the Yongsan district office.

According to Ye, Yongsan is looking into expanding the scope of the program to include other sister cities.

Qui Nhon City in Binh Dinh Province was home to a large U.S. military unit and South Korea’s Tiger Division during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s.

By Robert Lee (rjmlee@heraldcorp.com)