We need friends like S. Korea
It’s not every day the President of South Korea visits New Zealand, as he did last week. Indeed, the last time was nearly a decade ago. I shouldn’t know this factoid, but I do because of a personal interest. Back in 1992, I was posted to South Korea as the first New Zealand-government designated Korean language trainee. At that time, I had the chance to talk with then-opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, and in the course of that casually invited him to New Zealand.
Some years later, I got a harried phone call from the head office of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, asking if it was true I had extended a personal invitation to nowPresident Kim. It was one of many bumps in my diplomatic career – but also the reason I continue to track Korean presidential visits to New Zealand.
When I arrived in Korea nearly three decades ago, it was a country going through both a social and economic revolution. Hyundai (which means ‘modern’) and Samsung (‘three stars’) were emerging as global leaders in shipbuilding, electronics and more. Each company had been established by a family – and each then had a turnover larger than the New Zealand economy.
It was hard, then, to believe that South Korea had been a New Zealand aid recipient as recently as 1974. Equally hard to believe that Koreans themselves had only been allowed to travel freely five years earlier, just before the 1988 Olympics.
The dramatic economic turnaround, poetically known as the ‘‘Miracle on the Han River’’, happened under authoritarian rule, with a generation making real sacrifices for the benefit of their children as they recovered from the ravages of war.
South Korea is now the 12thlargest economy in the world – and the world’s fifth-largest exporter. For New Zealand, it’s our fifth-largest goods trading partner. The average annual wage of South Korea’s 51 million people is US$35,191 (NZ$51,273), remarkable when you consider they started from zero in the early 1960s.
So last week New Zealand played host to President Moon Jae-in (and no, I didn’t invite him), who stopped by on his way home from the G20 in Buenos Aires. If he’s at all recognisable to New Zealanders, Moon is probably best known for his role reducing some of the tensions between North and South Korea. Since Moon – himself the son of refugees from the North – was elected last year, there have been three inter-Korean summit meetings with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un.
Much of the international media coverage of Moon’s New Zealand visit centred on his comments that he still hoped the leader of the North, Kim Jongun, would visit Seoul before the year end, as a way of making progress towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. It is hard to unpick the Korean Peninsula issues, but my own view is that history is going to judge the international community badly when it comes to the response to the North Korean regime.
Moon came into power last year through a snap election after the impeachment of thenPresident Park Geun-hye in a corruption scandal.
In terms of his key economic policy objectives, Moon has been talking about ‘‘inclusive growth’’, ‘‘sustainable development’’ and ‘‘peopleoriented growth’’ – words that are familiar to New Zealanders. Indeed, there is much in common between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and President Moon’s language. It could be argued they are currently the two most visible progressive leaders in the AsiaPacific region.
South Korea’s history of some 5000 years is littered with episodes of large powers fighting and Koreans paying the price – so they are actively looking for partners to engage with.
New Zealand has a good partnership with South Korea. In addition to the blood and treasure spilt during the Korean War (all New Zealanders visiting Korea should visit the United Nations cemetery in Pusan), we now have an extensive Korean population in New Zealand. We have an FTA. We have ties to Korea through our creative industries, notably film, and growing people-to-people links and cultural exchanges. We have a Korea-born MP, Melissa Lee, in our Parliament. And of course New Zealand kiwifruit commands a big share of the Korean market.
As New Zealand navigates some of the changing economic and security challenges we face, friends become increasingly important to us. So, if I may, do feel free to come back, President Moon. I’ve a spare room.