Pres. Park’s U.S. visit focused on ‘four key principles’

South Korean government officials say that President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the United States is “thoroughly in line with the four key principles” for her administration. Most of her schedule and remarks are intended to promote the key principles – economic revival, people’s happiness, cultural prosperity, and the foundation for peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

President Park used her luncheon meeting with business leaders at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday as an “investor relations” session for “economic revival.” In a speech delivered in English, the president asked foreign business leaders to invest in South Korea. During another meeting with Korean business people on the following day, the president called on heads of Korea’s conglomerates to participate in her administration’s economic democratization drive and expand investment.

For “people’s happiness,” President Park has said that the government should listen to people’s voices to give them “practical help.”

During a meeting with Koreans living in the U.S., her promise to issue personal identification cards to Koreans living overseas and call on U.S. Congress to expand the visa quota for professional Koreans to 15,000 per year was made to provide realistic support to relevant people. In the same vein, she agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama on a five-year extension of the Work, English, Study, and Travel (WEST) program for Korean students in the U.S., which is supposed to expire in October.

In addition, President Park played a role as an ambassador for Korean culture throughout her stay in the U.S., making efforts from various angles to promote Korean culture.

She wore traditional Korean dresses three times to promote the beauty of Korea’s traditional culture and offered traditional lacquered tableware sets as a present for the U.S. president. Her interest was not limited to traditional culture. On Tuesday, she introduced, in person, the exhibitions and performances by young Korean modern artists during a banquet celebrating the 60th anniversary of Seoul-Washington alliance. She also mentioned Korean pop culture during her speech to the U.S. Congress and meeting with Korean residents in the U.S.

Among the key principles, she paid her greatest attention to the “establishment of the foundation for peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.” She explained her “Korean Peninsula trust-building process” to the U.S. president in person. During a joint news conference, Obama pledged his support for the initiative, saying it was “very similar” to his approach. In an address to a joint meeting of the US Congress, Park also unveiled her idea to build a peace park in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.