Korea's foreign minister is enthusiastic about Middle East: experts

Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, walks through Incheon International Airport on Sunday on his way to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken. Yonhap

Experts say Korea's ties with the region will be upgraded

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Korea's relations with the Middle East may undergo a change, in a positive way, in the next few years, according to people who are familiar with the matter.

Their optimism about Korea-Middle East ties is based on their personal experiences of the man in charge of the nation's foreign policy, and their testimony about him is consistent. Foreign Minister Park Jin, also a lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, is a Middle East enthusiast, they said.

"I got the sense that he's very interested in the region, while interacting with him, albeit intermittently," Jang Ji-hyang, a research fellow of comparative Middle East politics at the Seoul-based think tank, Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told The Korea Times.

In early March before the March 9 presidential election, Jang was invited to a session hosted by the Global Vision Committee, then a foreign policy advisory committee established in the Yoon Suk-yeol camp. Back then Rep. Park was leading the committee as its chairman. Jang was asked to present what's going on in the Middle East and its implications for Korea, an offer she accepted.

"Rep. Park moderated the event and I remember he was very enthusiastic about the region. He said that the Middle East is an important region for Korea, and that's why he was determined to organize the session and squeeze it into their already busy schedule," she said.

Jang presented what she had prepared, followed by a Q&A session. Her audience was Yoon's then-foreign policy advisors and many of them were later appointed to key foreign policy and security posts after Yoon was inaugurated. National Security Advisor Kim Sung-han, Korean Ambassador to the United States Cho Tae-yong, and some other foreign policy and military experts attended the session.

"Rep. Park was one of a few people there who intently listened to my presentation. I could tell that he was very serious, seen from the way he spoke about the region," said Jang.

The session on the Middle East was one of the 11 foreign policy events the committee had prepared. Topics they covered included the U.S.-China rivalry, Korea-Japan relations, tripartite cooperation among Korea, Japan and the United States, as well as the Indo-Pacific region. The Middle East session was the last event held about a week before the presidential election.

"My impression was that the Yoon camp was much more interested in the Middle East than the Lee Jae-myung camp. Before the Middle East session, I got phone calls twice from the Yoon camp about my presentation, first from his aide and second from Park himself," said Jang.

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva Tor pose with a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on March 24 in Yoon's previous office in Tongui-dong, Seoul. Newsis

Inspired by Israel

Foreign Minister Park's particular interest lies in Israel, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"I was told that Minister Park came to be interested in Israel since 2008 when he served as chairman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Trade committee," the source said, noting that's what she heard directly from Park. "He said there is a lot Korea can learn from Israel. Minister Park is an eager learner."

Park's bond with Israel came to be known to the public last year when Korea and the Middle Eastern country agreed on a coronavirus vaccine swap. The Korean government announced on July 7 of last year that it would receive 700,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine on loan from Israel.

Rep. Park welcomed the announcement in a statement released the same day, calling the Korea-Israel vaccine swap the result of a "technology alliance" between the two countries.

Park played a key role behind the vaccine swap arrangement. He initiated the deal on May 11 during a meeting between Israeli Economy Minister Amir Peretz, who was visiting Korea at the time, and Korean lawmakers in the National Assembly. Park called for the need for a Korea-Israel technology partnership, describing Israel as a key country with which Korea should forge such a partnership based on close bilateral cooperation in the areas of defense and economy.

The Israeli minister was quoted as saying that Israel was willing to help Korea and that he would discuss Park's proposal with other cabinet ministers of his country after going back home. Park reportedly followed up with his proposal a month later when he and Israeli Ambassador to Korea Akiva Tor went hiking together on Mount Bukhan, Seoul.

According to another source, Park's interest in the Middle East had been apparent several times when he served as a chair professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Graduate School of International and Area Studies from 2013 to 2020, prior to rejoining the National Assembly as a lawmaker.

"I was told that he encouraged his students to conduct research on Middle Eastern affairs, and that's how I came to know that he was interested in the region," the source said.
After Park took the helm in the foreign ministry, he began to capitalize on his interest in the region.

Earlier this month, the foreign ministry announced a plan to fund a research project about the tripartite cooperation among Korea, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. According to a media report on June 6, the ministry explained in its proposal letter that the Israeli government had initially proposed to Korea that there should be tripartite cooperation among Korea, Israel and unspecified Arab countries. The ministry chose the UAE among other Arab countries as a partner for the tripartite partnership because it is Korea's only strategic partner in the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Park Jin, right, sits down with Iranian Ambassador to Korea Saeed B. Shabestari in his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul, June 9. Courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Iran

The Middle East has long been important for Korea. The country has relied on the region for oil imports ― about 60 percent of Korea's oil imports came from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries ― as well as some business opportunities in construction.

Korea's exports of nuclear reactors to the UAE in December 2009 were a significant event in the history of Korea-Middle East relations. The $40-billion deal to construct and operate four nuclear reactors there was the result of then President Lee Myung-bak's summit diplomacy. In his autobiography, "President's Time," Lee described in detail the entire process of how that happened, from the awkward silence he and the then-UAE crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, had in their first phone conversation, to the unbelievable moment when the Korean consortium was eventually announced as the winner of the deal after beating more favored French and U.S. rivals.

Since then, the nation's cooperation with the UAE has diversified into various areas, including defense and healthcare.

Albeit positive news for Korean businesses that are eagerly seeking business opportunities abroad, there's still a hurdle Korea's government should think about and try to overcome when it seeks to expand and diversify its cooperation with Israel and the Arab countries: Iran is not happy about it.

There are still Korean businesses ― though most of them are small companies ― that are doing business with Iran.

Iran's foreign ministry said that tensions thawing between Israel and the Arab countries following a flurry of diplomacy in the last two years are "the most unfortunate developments" in recent years.

Referring to the geopolitical shift in Israel's normalization of bilateral relations with some Arab countries, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said the United States-brokered agreements between the two sides amount to the advancement of the "colonial policy of 'normalization' with the Islamic countries."

"We should know that the normalization of relations with this usurper regime is a blatant tyranny against the oppressed people of Palestine and the intensification of this process will encourage further attacks of the Zionist regime against the fragile authority of Palestinians on the current disparate lands," he told The Korea Times when asked to comment on the recent diplomatic progress made in the region.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is confident that this fantasy of the Zionists and their cronies will not have a pleasant outcome," Khatibzadeh said.