Premiere Visit - The First South-Korean Leader in Romania

The President of the Korean Republic, Roh Moo-Hyun, will start his three-day-long official visit in Romania today. This is the first visit of a South-Korean leader in Romania after the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries in March 1990.

The visit of the leader in Seoul to Bucharest takes place at less than one year after the state visit of President Traian Basescu to the Korean Republic. The South-Korean President will have meetings with President Traian Basescu, with PM Tariceanu as well as with the Presidents of the two Parliament Chambers. "The high-level talks will target issues regarding the agenda of the bilateral relations, especially regarding the economical cooperation, as well as issues on the international agenda. The Korean President will be accompanied by an important delegation of businessmen, representing several important South-Korean companies", the Presidential Administration states.

REQUEST TO NORTH KOREA

Yesterday, a day before the official visit to Bucharest of the leader in Seoul, President Traian Basescu took part in an e-mail interview for the Yonhap news agency. He used this opportunity to ask North Korea to get back to the multilateral negotiations regarding the nuclear disarmament. He also emphasized the need to impose the moratorium regarding the long-range missiles again, says the Yonhap agency webpage. "We think that the only viable format for the solving of the of the security problems in the Korea Peninsula is the one of the negotiations in six", Traian Basescu stated. The negotiations in six, with the participation of the two Koreas, of China, the United States, Japan and Russia, have been blocked since November last year. At the beginning of July, North Korea tested seven missiles, including a Taepodong-2, a long-range missile.

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Romania and the Korean Republic have established diplomatic relations on the 30th of March 1990. Romania’s Ambassador in Seoul, Valeriu Arteni, presented his accreditation letters on the 28th of May 2003. The Korean Republic Ambassador in Bucharest, Kim Dae-sik, presented his accreditations on the 23rd of March 2004. Besides the Embassy in Seoul, Romania has two more honorific consulates: one in the South Korean capital and another one in Busan. The Romanian citizens that wish to travel to South Korea don’t need visas, no matter the type of passport they have.

THE FIRST VISIT

After March 1990, the first official visit has been made in Seoul four years later, in March 1994, by Ion Iliescu, the Romanian President at that time. The second visit was also made by a Romanian President, 11 years later. This is the visit of President Traian Basescu, which took place in the South-Korean capital in October 2005. Besides the two visits, there have also been several bilateral meetings between the Presidents of the two states: in October 1995, in New York, at the UN jubilation session and in November 2001, at the UN General Assembly. The governmental meetings between the two countries didn’t have the same frequency. From 1993 until present, certain Romanian and South-Korean Ministers have been paying visits to Seoul and to Bucharest. Moreover, the parliamentary visits have taken place more often as well. Actually, there is a group of friendship with the Korean Republic, which is made of 20 Parliament Members from all the leading parties. The leader of this group is Valeriu Buzea, GRP (the Great Romania Party) Deputy.

TRADES

Last year, the Romanian export in the Korean Republic reached 67.42 million US dollars and it regarded: common metals and metallic articles (60.48%), electrical machines, gadgets and equipments (35.21%), plastic and rubber materials (1.23%), textile materials (1.21%), wood and wood charcoal (0.74%), furniture and miscellaneous (0.4%) and food, beverages and tobacco (0.35%). The Romanian import from the Korea Republic reached 549.9 million US dollars and regarded mostly: electrical machines, gadgets and equipments (45.14%), vehicles and transport aircrafts (33.74%), common metals and metallic articles (7.4%), textile materials (4.4%), plastic and rubber materials (4%), optical, photo and cinema apparatuses (2.25%), products of the chemical industry (1.3%). The Korean Republic is the first Asian investor in Romania, with a volume of direct foreign investments of 223 million US dollars. In 2005, there were 91 companies with South-Korean equity investment in Romania. The total amount of the joint stock subscribed by the South-Korean part reached 57.83 million US dollars.

CULTURAL BONDS

By the Cultural Collaboration Agreement, signed in 1991 between the Romanian and South Korean Governments, periodical exchange programs (movie weeks, artistic shows and art exhibitions, book donations etc.) take place. In 1996, the Korea-Romania Friendship Association was initiated in Seoul. There are University scholarships awarded every year. There is a Korean department at the University in Bucharest as well as a Romanian Language and Civilization department at the Hankuk International Studies University in Seoul, which has 160 students. The Korean University also collaborates with the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University in Iasi and with the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca.

Translated by Sorin Balan