Ron Jacobsohn Attends the Groundbreaking of the new South Korean Embassy

This is the groundbreaking of the new Korean Embassy building in Herzliya. The Korean government is the first Asian government to purchase land to build their own embassy in Israel. This ambitious project will cost the Koreans an estimated six-and-a-million-dollars. And maybe a Symbol of the strong relationship between Israel and Korea is the fact that there is no house in Israel that doesn’t have at least one product made in Korea.

Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
We are at the Groundbreaking of the new Korean Embassy building in Herzeliya. The Korean government is the first Asian government to purchase land to build their own embassy in Israel. This ambitious project will cost the Koreans an estimated six-and-a-million-dollars.

Kyou-Hyun Kim, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Korea flew in especially for the ceremony and to prove how crucial the relationship with Israel is for his country

Kyou-Hyun Kim, Deputy Foreign Minister of Korea:
More than anybody else, you know, we understand the security situations that the Israelis are in, so, and when you’re a school children, you’re taught a lot about Israel like Kibbutz and how to work together as a group and so almost all Koreans have a softer spot for Israel, so that’s a good foundation for us to move forward together.

Kim il Soo, the Korean Ambassador to Israel, suggests that the tight relations between his country and Israel comes from the deep understanding Koreans have to the situation in Israel as it is very similar to what they are experiencing back home.

Kim il Soo, Korean Ambassador to Israel:
It is a first time for an Asian country to build its embassy, we are very proud of that, and that also express, I mean Korea’s firm commitment for the relations with Israel. Israel has many good relations with many Asian countries, but Korea is a little bit unique; we have so many things, have things in common, I mean we developed our economy and political democracy in a very tough environment, I mean security environment so just that I mean modern history of ours tells the common ground we have, so that makes our relations with Israel very special.

The chairman of the Korean Friendship Association, MK Meir Shitrit, says that the relationship with Korea is good but still has room to improve.

MK Meir Shitrit, Chairman, Korean Friendship Association:
I’m glad that today, because of the similarities between Israel and Korea, we are in very good relations between Israel and Korea and I’m glad that they’re building this embassy here, I hope that as Mr. Kyou-Hyun Kim said, I hope that one day we’ll have peace in our area and all the embassies will move to Jerusalem but in the meantime they need an embassy and I know that doing usually a very good job in everything they do. Most of the countries in the world do not accept the situation of today, they don’t recognize all Jerusalem as an Israeli territory and therefore they’re waiting for the peace process as we are, I’m waiting as well! I hope that one day we’ll come shortly to peace in which we’ll define our borders, then there will be no obstacle for no country to build embassy in Jerusalem, I know that many countries already, about many years ago, lands in Jerusalem for the building of own embassies, including United States. The fact they are not building, because the situation in Jerusalem is in conflict and therefore they’re waiting to see the peace process so I hope that the peace really will be accomplished, in that case we’ll see all the ambassadors moving to Jerusalem. I hope that this building embassy would also make progress and tighten our relations between Israel and Korea, there is still… it became better, there’s still a long way in order to make it more and more tightened.

Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
Maybe a Symbol of the strong relationship between Israel and Korea is the fact that there is no house in Israel that doesn’t have at least one product made in Korea.
For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn in Herzeliya.

About Ron Jacobsohn

World renowned, award winning, correspondent, Ron Jacobsohn, brings from his very entertaining world to Ron's World.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *