Ex-ruling party chief Park to visit Europe as pres. envoy

Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party, will visit the Netherlands, Portugal and Greece later this week as a special envoy of President Lee Myung-bak.

In April, the three nations marked the 50th anniversary of their relations with Korea. In her tour that starts Thursday, Park will meet Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, President Anibal Cavaco Silva of Portugal and President Karolos Papoulias of Greece and deliver President Lee’s personal letters to them.

Whenever she travels abroad, Park is known for visiting Korean War memorials and meeting ethnic Korean residents there. She will pay tribute to a Korean War memorial in Greece on May 4, her first day there, and meet ethnic Korean residents in all three countries.

Immediately after her Europe schedule was set, Park is known to begin reading books and meeting experts to learn about pending issues of these countries and their relations with Korea.

On her Twitter page Sunday, she said, “There are countries that fought in the Korean War, provided emergency aid and vaccines when we were hit by foot-and-mouth disease, and helped us rescue crew members of the (hijacked Korean freighter) Samho Jewelry. They also helped Koreans evacuate from Libya. We are all thankful to these countries.”

Her aides said she made the comment after conducting an extensive study of the three countries.

Park is also studying the culture, customs and proverbs of each country, a practice she developed before meeting prominent foreign figures. This is an ingrained habit of hers since she became acting first lady to her father, former President Park Chung-hee.

Park Geun-hye will visit Yi Jun Peace Museum in The Hague while in the Netherlands, and meet Koreans working for international agencies including the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.

Her spokesman Lee Jung-hyun said, “Park will have four or five more events besides her official schedule made public.” Her visit to Europe is drawing huge media attention, with 24 journalists and crew accompanying her.

ditto@donga.com