Gracious Hostess

President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with Nancy Pelosi, U.S. house minority leader, at Cheong wa Dae on April 2.
President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with Nancy Pelosi, U.S. house minority leader, at Cheong wa Dae on April 2.

 

President Park Geun-hye and Nancy Pelosi, minority leader of the United States House of Representatives, have met again, two years after their previous encounter. The latter visited Seoul on April 2 with other representative delegates as a part of a East Asia tour of five countries.

During their 65-minute meeting, President Park Geun-hye stressed the urgency of the comfort women issue in view of the victims’ advanced age, and the delegation members sympathized with her. Also, she explained about the Korean government’s efforts towards mending fences with Japan, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations. Nancy Pelosi congratulated Korea on the successful foreign ministers’ meeting with China and Japan.

Nancy Pelosi, as the first Speaker of the House in U.S. history, had made a great contribution to the unanimous passage of lawmaker Mike Honda’s comfort women resolution back in July 2007. In this context, President Park Geun-hye’s emphasis on the issue during the talks can be regarded as directed toward Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is scheduled to make a speech to Congress on April 29. He referred to comfort women as human trafficking victims at a recent interview with the Washington Post, causing much controversy.

President Park also spoke about North Korea at length. “The North Korean nuclear issue is not only the number one security threat for South Korea, but also a factor significantly compromising the peace and stability of Northeast Asia,” the South Korean President said, adding, “I feel really sorry to see Pyongyang burying its head in the sand while Myanmar is changing, Cuba is opening up, and nuclear negotiations with Iran are showing progress, and I would like to stress that inter-Korean reunification will be the ultimate key to complicated problems, including human rights in North Korea.”

She appreciated the U.S. Congress’ consistent support for peaceful inter-Korean reunification, too. “The ROK-U.S. alliance is now stronger than ever, and I believe this would have been impossible without bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress, which I hope will continue for a long time,” she mentioned. The delegation responded that they would keep striving for the development of bilateral relations.

Nancy Pelosi served as the Speaker of the House between 2007 and 2010. The position is considered to be the third-highest in American politics, second only to that of the President and Vice President. She was a part of the reception committee in May 2013, when the South Korean President visited Washington and delivered a speech to Congress. Pelosi's visit to Korea was her first in 18 years. The delegation is scheduled to head for Japan this morning.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution