Sul Kyung Hoon, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Ukraine, was offered a choice between the post in Ukraine or in one of the EU countries upon finishing his mission to the UN. As he admitted in an interview to The Day, he had made the choice in favor of our country after discussions with Yuriy Sergeyev, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN. “I learned that Ukrainians are a peace-loving nation with great potential and their country is in the process of great change. I thought that being an ambassador to Ukraine is much more challenging and interesting job than in other countries,” said Mr. Sul Kyung Hoon.
“The population of our countries is approximately the same, but the area is very different. Ukraine is approximately six times larger than Korea (Ukraine spans 603,628 sq. km and has 45.49 million people as of 2013, whereas Korea is 100,210 sq. km in area and 50.22 million in population as of 2014). This obviously makes a big difference in population density. This means higher competition for Korean people to get resources, jobs and so on.
“The geo-political locations of our two countries are very similar. For instance, both of us are surrounded by big countries, which might have been a contributing factor for numerous intrusions from those countries and for fighting for independence. In terms of the history of the statehood, it is true that Ukraine is a relatively young country as it became independent in 1991. I hope that this will provide a fresh momentum for democracy and development for Ukraine.”
NATIONAL IDENTITY: THE ROLE OF HISTORY AND THE KOREAN ALPHABET
“Knowledge of one’s own history will be essential for forming and nurturing national identity and unity. This is particularly so when you are separating yourself from the previous dominant culture and history. The Korean people are proud of their history and unique culture. This pride and self-confidence has served as a platform for advancing democracy and achieving rapid development and prosperity.
“Until the creation of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, in 1443, Korean people had used Chinese characters to note Korean language. However, as we had different language structure from Chinese, there had always been a problem of discrepancy between writing and speaking our own language. And, due to the complexity of Chinese characters, only the high-class people were able to learn and use them.
“Therefore, even before the creation of Hangul, there had been attempts to use simplified Chinese characters as a sort of adapted alphabets to denote our language. But it was by King Sejong that we finally had our own writing system corresponding to our language. Since Hangul has only 24 alphabets, even a child could learn and use them easily without much education. This revolutionary innovation greatly contributed to enabling our people to become literate.”
“KOREAN STUDENTS LEARN THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE IN THE MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS”
“Ukraine is well known among Koreans as a country with fertile black soils and, thanks to that, playing the role of breadbasket for the world. Korean students are learning the history of Ukraine in middle and high schools. Main contents are about Kyivan Rus’, Ukrainian industry, and Chornobyl disaster of 1986.
“Particularly, after the Donbas and the Crimea situations, many Korean people have more interest in Ukraine. Many scholars believe that the Ukrainian issue constitutes a tectonic paradigm change in the international order, and there have been a lot of discussions on the implication of the Ukrainian issue vis-a-vis the Korean issue. Korean people firmly support Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”
“THE MOVIE SUNFLOWER HELPED SHOW THE WORLD THE AMAZING BEAUTY OF UKRAINE”
“When I was a student, Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. Then later, Ukraine became independent, which incited my keen interest in the study of East European politics. Of course, even before, I knew that Ukraine was well known as a breadbasket and for its black soils. The movie Sunflower featuring endless farmlands of yellow sunflowers has also successfully helped to introduce to the world the immense beauty of Ukraine.
“Just before I was appointed as Ambassador to Ukraine, I was working in New York as Deputy Permanent Representative at Ambassador level to the United Nations, covering many global issues including Security Council ones. One of the well-groomed diplomats I met in New York was Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev, the current Ukrainian Permanent Representative to the UN. Interestingly, we had lived in the same apartment, and at that time he was the Chairman of the Sixth Committee. As I also covered that committee, we soon made friends to each other. My wife was a very active member in UN Ambassadors’ spouses Association. And she also met Mrs. Sergeyeva in the course of her activities. So, our friendship still continues in Kyiv.”
“SUCCESS STORIES OF ASIAN COUNTRIES CAN HELP UKRAINE BROADEN ITS PERSPECTIVES”
“A really interesting question is broached by some experts: whether the current Ukrainian government pays proper attention to the East – countries of South-East Asia, including Republic of Korea – to secure the growth of economy. It is rather well-known by now that there were contesting discussions about whether there were any particular Asian value and culture which helped facilitate the process of advancing democracy and development in Asia.
“Ukraine has determined to become integrated into the European Union. There is nothing wrong about that. Each country has its own right to choose its own development path. At the same time, the success stories of Asian countries may help Ukraine broaden its perspective and be more inclusive. In this respect, it seems interesting that more and more Ukrainian people turn to the importance of diversity in the international relations. As for the bilateral relations between Korea and Ukraine, we are witnessing that more and more high-ranking officials are visiting Korea.”
ON THE BILATERAL RELATIONS
“Ukraine has great potentials coming from its geography, abundant natural resources, fertile land, high-tech based industrial capacities, and highly qualified human resources. We already have a number of big Korean companies operating here in Ukraine.
“It was rather unfortunate that, due to the political strife in Ukraine, several discussions on joint projects have been suspended or stopped. I am confident that Korea can play a very important role in the course of reconstructing the new Ukraine. As for Ambassador to Ukraine, I have taken initiative to broaden our perspective and horizon for cooperation by appointing an Honorary Consul for the region of Lviv.
“We are well aware that Ukraine is now focusing on three priority areas to accelerate the reconstruction of the country: agriculture, energy, and information technology. Interestingly, Korea can be an excellent partner in all those three priority areas. For more concrete cooperation areas, for instance, we are working on the possibility of agricultural investment to Ukraine. Another area is energy efficiency. We can provide smart-grid power distribution technology so that Ukraine can improve energy efficiency thus saving precious energy resources. We are also interested in investing in the medical areas.
“In addition, Ukraine is now undergoing huge reforms and restructuring of the nation to integrate itself into Europe. From our perspective, such effort will be also very useful in expanding our bilateral cooperation.”
