An Interview with Korean DCM Sang-Woo Lim at the National Museum, New Delhi
Who knew that museums could lie at the heart of diplomatic life? For South Korea’s Deputy Chief of Mission to India, Sang-Woo Lim, they are not peripheral cultural stops but gateways into history—spaces for cultivating sensibilities and absorbing the culture of the countries he serves in. No matter where he’s posted, Lim makes it a point to visit museums. During his Delhi stint, however, he took this engagement a step further: he volunteered at one.
It was a chilly Saturday morning in December when I went to the National Museum in New Delhi. I paid the regular entry fee of ₹20, took my ticket, and walked in. Near the entrance, beside the Surya statue, he was waiting. A nonchalant figure in a yellow kurta with brown stripes, layered with a black Nehru jacket, a volunteer’s ID card hanging from his neck.
That day marked Lim’s final tour as a museum volunteer. For the last few months, despite the demands of his weekday diplomatic schedules, he spent his weekends walking visitors through India’s rich civilisational history. With his term in India drawing to a close in mid-December 2025, the guided walk felt symbolically poignant—a farewell to India through one last journey across its cultural past.