South Korea's Moon Jae-In's visit to India to cement bilateral ties between two nations

In his first ever trip to India, South Korean president Moon Jae-In will be visiting India between July 8 and 11.

Both the countries will be holding dialogues on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues. The President will be accompanied by a large delegation including his wife.

While the main engagement with Modi government in Delhi will by July 10, the Indian PM and South Korean president will visit Gandhi Smriti and Samsung plant in Noida. Indian PM Modi had visited South Korea in May 2015.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The visit is expected to open new avenues of partnership, particularly in the economic domain. Korean brands like Samsung, Hyundai, LG are household names in India. They are contributor and partner of Indian govt's flagship programmes like digital India, Skill India, Make in India. The bilateral trade between the two countries passed $20 billion in 2017.

But the long shadow of North Korean Denuclearization, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and India's engagement with North Korea will be on top of the mind of South Korean President Moon-Jae In and Indian PM Narendra Modi. Speaking exclusively to WION, Deputy Foreign Minister of South Korea Enna Park welcomed India-North Korea engagement and said India can play an influential role.

North Korea Issue

Recently India had sent junior minister in its foreign ministry, Gen VK Singh to North Korea. This was the first Ministerial-level visit from India to DPRK after a gap of almost 20 years. South Korean Ambassador to India Amb. Shin Bongkil has welcomed India's engagement with North Korea saying India can help the reclusive country to "come out" and its presence is important in Pyongyang. When it comes to North Korea, New Delhi has always highlighted the threat from nuclear proliferation, in particular, India’s concerns in the context of the proliferation linkages with India’s neighbourhood. The Islamabad-Pyongyang link has been troubling for India especially on Nuclear Front, after all, AQ Khan's nuclear black market is Islamabad's worst kept secret.

India and South Korea have a special strategic partnership. Relationship with Korea is a logical extension of Act East policy. South Korea has a new southern strategy. Ther is a convergence and the convergence is especially important when the global political order is changing fast.