South Korean President begins maiden India visit

NEW DELHI: South Korean President Moon Jae-in today kicked-off his first state visit to India with a tour of the Akshardham temple here and said the two countries may have different cultures but share common values such as peace, harmony and unity in diversity. The president, accompanied by his wife Kim Jung-sook, arrived at the sprawling temple premises this evening from the Delhi airport and spent an hour there, admiring its iconic architecture and listening to the stories behind it design. The two visiting dignitaries entered the temple premises through its beautiful Bharat Upwan, and were welcomed with garlands, a ‘tika’ and ‘kalwa’ (holy thread) on the wrist in front of the Mayur Swagat Dwar by Sadhu Gnanmunidas, Swami of the temple. “I am very delighted to visit this grand temple as part of the first leg of my visit. After, seeing this, the feeling that I get is that India and Korea may be having different cultures, but the two countries share commonalities in values such as peace, harmony and unity in diversity,” Moon said. The Korean president, after arriving at the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple, billed as the ‘World’s Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple’, posed for pictures and then went to the main temple where he paid floral tribute at the sanctum sanctorum and performed its ‘parikrama’ (circumambulation).

custody of the three persons to the NIA, based on the court order.” A special NIA court here had on Friday granted 10 days custody of the three NSCN(K) militants to the NIA. Gaising Maringmei, identified as Ronal, who is the self-styled ‘revenue secretary’ of the NSCN-K and his two accomplices were arrested from Mookyniang locality in Khliehtyrshi village, about 15 km from the district headquarter.