17 September 1999
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Korea and Mrs Kim Dae-jung, other distinguished guests, and in particular the Ministers of the Korean Government who’ve accompanied their President, ladies and gentlemen.
It’s always a particular honour to welcome the political leader of a friendly nation. It is a special privilege to welcome our guest of honour today because he is no ordinary head of government. Those of us who’ve grown up in Australia and have enjoyed the benefits of democracy in this country and take for granted the effortless political and democratic process whereby political power is transferred peacefully and without resistance once the public has made its views known, must understand the different tradition of those who’ve had to fight and struggle to achieve the implementation of the democratic will of their people. And the record of our guest of honour today is precisely that. He’s a man who’s suffered much and endured much in order to achieve the great honour and distinction of leading his country.
There are few democratically elected leaders in the world today who’ve endured so much along the path to achieving the office they now occupy. I remarked to the President over lunch that both of us were once Leaders of the Opposition. And although I regarded my path to the Prime Ministership as involving the odd difficulty along the way, and the need of course to win the support of the majority of the Australian community, it was as nothing as compared with the physical and other hardships that were endured by our guest of honour. So most importantly I salute him for being a valid and courageous democrat, a person who’s endured and suffered in order to achieve the great responsibilities that he now occupies within his country.
Australia and Korea have a very important relationship. It’s a relationship of course which is touched by a shared sacrifice in war. It is impossible for any Australian Prime Minister to talk of that relationship without mentioning the contribution that our country made, and without honouring the shared sacrifice of Koreans and Australians during the Korean War in the early 1950s. And it is appropriate that later this afternoon the President and I should turn the first sod in relation to the Korean War Memorial. And very appropriately we’ll be accompanied in that ceremony by many Australian diggers who’ve fought alongside their other allies in defence of what was South Korea, and now called the Republic of Korea.
In modern times the President has played a major role in the economic recovery of his country. Like most other societies in the region Korea was badly affected by the Asian economic downturn. Unlike many others however, Korea quickly knew what had to be done to get the domestic house in order, set about doing it, and is now enjoying the benefit of the measures that were taken to produce economic reform.
It’s quite an extraordinary achievement. The country saw its unemployment rate go very rapidly to 8% but in the space of two years that rate has now been brought back to closer to 6%. The Republic of Korea is now enjoying strong economic growth, and I’m proud of the fact that Australia was one of the countries that offered to help Korea’s economic revival. We were one of the country’s earliest to offer support through the International Monetary Fund. And as events have happened because of the recovery of Korea’s economy, it was not necessary for that offer to be fully drawn down. But it was a token of our commitment to the relationship.
Korea over the years has been amongst our very best customers. Until last year it was our second best customer after Japan. And only because of the Asian downturn did it go into third place in the last 12 months. We export a great deal to Korea, and we import an increasing amount. And those of us familiar with the automotive industry will know the contribution of Korean motor vehicles to the domestic consumption of automobiles in this country.
So it is a very important relationship. It is a relationship built on ties of history. It’s a relationship built on hardheaded trade assessments, trade negotiations, and trade understanding. It’s also a relationship that’s built importantly on people to people links. There are many thousands of Korean students in Australian universities. There are many thousands of Australian citizens of Korean background and descent. And I’ve remarked to the President before that my own electorate comprises the second largest Korean-Australian population in Australia, and there is at least one Christian church in my electorate where at least one service each Sunday is conducted wholly in the Korean language.
So the cultural and people to people links are very deep, they’re very strong, and they’re very important. Our societies are different and it’s pointless pretending that we share everything in common. But we share so much in common in terms of a commitment to openness and liberal democracy, and a recognition of the importance of private enterprise and the importance of the profit motive in business activity and in the attraction of investment.
In recent times of course the President and I have shared concern about developments in East Timor. Both of us as leaders of fellow members of APEC came together in New Zealand last weekend. And that fortuitous gathering enabled many of us, including the President and myself, to discuss those events. And I am particularly pleased that the President informed me this morning that his Government subject to the approval of the Korean National Assembly would be contributing up to an infantry battalion of Korean personnel to the international peacekeeping force in East Timor.
This difficult issue challenges the skill and the understanding, the diplomacy and the sense of common purpose and resolution of many countries in our region. It’s important that the responsibility be a shared one. Australia is ready and able and proud to play a leadership role but it is not a role that should be played alone. And it’s important not only to the implementation of the task of the peacekeeping operation but also to the months and years that lie beyond it it’s important that it be a shared, regional activity involving not only Australia but also many of our other friends and neighbours in the region. So I do record very genuinely my appreciation for the President’s support, understanding and contribution.
The President and I quite understandably discussed the relations between his country and North Korea. I support the Government, the Korean Government’s, sunshine policy towards North Korea. It seeks while defending the interests of the republic of Korea, it seeks consistent with defending those interests to engage North Korea in a more constructive dialogue with the rest of the world.
And I was able to assure the President that Australia would continue its steady contribution to KEDO which has been such an important instrument in trying to draw the people of North Korea into the world community.
We cannot ignore the nuclear potential of that country. But consistent with that vigilance we must do all we can to draw them into the international community. And on that issue the attitude of the Korean Government and the attitude of the Australian Government is precisely the same.
As I look to the future, ladies and gentlemen, the relations between our two countries ought only to get better and to get stronger. They are based on mutual respect. They are based on a recognition that although we have our differences we have many more points of common interest and common values and common commitment. We have recognised the contribution of Korean people to the modern Australian community. We remember with affection and emotion our shared historical experiences and adversity. We are complementary economies. The resources of Australia have played a major role in the building of the modern Korean economy. The products of Korea have played a very important part in the modern consumption patterns of Australian citizens. And we seek on both sides of the trade balance to diversify our exports. We have much to offer in technology. We have much to offer the tourists of Korea and I know increasingly the Government of Korea seeks a greater pattern of tourism from Australia in the years ahead.
So to you, Mr President, and to your charming wife, can I say we are particularly pleased to have you. Not only because you are the leader of a country with which we have a very important relationship but you are in your own right a distinctive figure not only in our region but throughout the world. You have endured more than most of us who spend a lifetime in politics for the things that you believe in and the things that you stand for. And wherever we are in the world those people who truly do love liberty and freedom admire that in a person and that is why you are particularly welcome to be with us today.
I now invite the member for Kingsford-Smith, Mr Laurie Brereton, the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and representing the Leader of the Opposition, to support my remarks. Thank you.
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