President Chen Shui-bian received Korean Parliament former speaker Park Kwan-yong this morning. The president welcomed the Korean leader and his delegation on behalf of the government of the Republic of China and its people.
The president first thanked the visitor for his assistance he provided to the special delegation that Taiwan sent to South Korea to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Ro while he was the parliament speaker. He also congratulated the visitor's political party on its victory in the last legislative elections, increasing the parliament seats from 112 to 125.
The president pointed out that the relations between Taiwan and South Korea have been improving gradually recently. In addition to re-establishing air flights and waiving visa, Taiwan has also set up a representative office in Pushan. The two-way trade has also been more and more active, with a growth of 30 percent annually. The bilateral trade last year has reached US$16.9 billion, and the trade surplus to Korea's favor was US$6.3 billion. Korea is Taiwan's fifth biggest trading partner, fourth importation country, and sixth export country. Besides that, the people of Taiwan and Korea have very close exchanges. There were 450,000 people traveling between Taiwan and Korea last year, among them, as many as 300,000 Taiwanese went to Korea and 150,000 Koreans coming to Taiwan. The president believes that the air flight re-sumption between Taiwan and Korea would boost the contacts and interchange between the peoples of the two countries.
The president emphasized that there is a need for Taiwan and Korea to re-establish a ministerial-level conference to deal with topics of mutual interest. Finally, the president asked the visitor to convey his regards to the Korean National Party former chairman Mr. Lee, and hoped that Taiwan and Korea could ameliorate their relations.
Former speaker Park Kwan-yong thanked the ROC government for its hospitality. He said that this has been 12 years since he last visited Taiwan, and he felt that the changes during these recent years have been considerably fast. He believes that the relations between the two countries will be firmer as they both enjoy common values such as democracy and freedom. He is willing to contribute his efforts to the amelioration of the two countries' relations.