Visiting Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, Enna Park, Wednesday said India can play an “influential role” in working towards peace in the Korean Peninsula as it urged New Delhi to persuade Pyongyang to recalculate its strategy to change its course to denuclearisation. Park, who started her career in India almost three decades ago, was posted as a junior diplomat in South Korean embassy in Delhi.
“India as the largest democracy plays quite an influential role in forming international opinion… we want India to continue to persuade North Korea to recalculate its strategy to make a decision to change its course to denuclearisation,” she told The Indian Express on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Development of Peace and Prosperity for the Korea India Strategic Partnership’ at Observer Research Foundation.
In her address, she said, “Our government has started a bold journey towards peace process in Korean Peninsula. We ask for your (India’s) wisdom and full support again.”
Park, who is South Korea’s ambassador for public diplomacy now, had spent her early years of diplomatic career here from 1989 to 1992. Back then, she said, India was a leader of Non-Aligned Movement, and it had some kind of a balanced approach between north and south Korea. “Now general perception is favourable towards South Korea,” she said.
Referring to the meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week in Singapore, she said, “It was a historic meeting… We should not lose this historic momentum and work together to make the peace initiative a success,” she told reporters.