A State Visit is always a significant milestone on the road to increased understanding, and friendship, between two countries.  We in Britain take a quiet pride in the way in which such visits are organised and arranged.  The ceremonies with which they begin, and with which their most important events are marked make each visit part of a long and continuing pageant in which tradition and diplomacy combine to underline the importance we attach to our relations with the country whose Head of State we welcome.

This is particularly the case when the State Visit is a first one.  His Excellency  Roh Moo-Hyun, the President of South Korea, is the first President of his nation to make a State Visit to the United Kingdom in the 120 years since we first established diplomatic relations.  As the President himself points out in his message, those 120 momentous years have seen us first establish, and then develop, an increasingly friendly relationship – politically, economically and culturally. As he also points out, our friendship was sealed when half a century ago, more than 50,000 young men and women from the United Kingdom fought, in defence of peace and democracy, in the Korean war.  We in Britain take particular pride in the spirit of sacrifice those young people displayed – perhaps most memorably encapsulated in the heroic stand of the “glorious Gloucesters.”

There are still, of course, tensions in the Korean peninsular and our mutual commitment to the democratic ideals fought for in the 1950s is as firm and as important as ever.  But it is not just steadfastness and resolution that we celebrate with this visit.  The United Kingdom is Britain’s largest trading partner in the European Union, and again, as President Roh Moo-Hyun emphasises, there is more Korean investment in the United Kingdom than in any other European nation.

As the Prime Minister remarks in his message, it is highly appropriate that the Fifth UK-Korea Hi Technology Forum should be held in London at the same time as this State Visit.  For it is in the field of hi-technology that our trading relationship will surely develop most in the years ahead.  But let us never forget that what first forged our friendship was the fact that we are both great trading nations.

Today we in the United Kingdom look to South Korea, with its powerful economy, as one of our principal partners for progress and peace in this era of globalisation.  If partnerships are to flourish individuals in both countries must understand, and respect, not only what unites them but their cultural differences.  Korea has a rich history, and an amazing cultural heritage, and we hope that just as Koreans may become more familiar with, and attracted to, our British traditions by the ceremony surrounding the State Visit, so individual British citizens will become more interested in, and attracted by, the great artistic legacy and cultural history of Korea. 

We at FIRST are delighted to be able to produce this report and to offer it as our contribution to what we trust will be a remarkably successful State Visit.  We are very  grateful to Her Majesty the Queen, to His Excellency the President, to the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary and all our other distinguished contributors for helping the make this Report a significant souvenir of an historic visit.