Korea’s First Lady Kim Jung-Sook said that coming to India alone, without her husband Moon Jae-in was not an easy decision.
Kim Jung-Sook said this during a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence in New Delhi earlier this month.
She was on a 4-day visit to India to attend India’s largest festival Diwali and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Queen Huh Memorial Park in Ayodhya.
The First Lady told Prime Minister Modi, “It was not an easy decision for me to visit India alone initially. However, you invited me as the guest of honor and instructed your ministries to take good care of me, giving me a great boost.”
“I am deeply grateful to you for displaying even more extra care in protocol and security services for such events as the luncheon with First Lady Savita Kovind, the meeting with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and the visit to an IT school. I also appreciate the warm welcome you extended to me and my delegation despite your busy schedule,” she added.
The Indian Prime Minister too was generous enough to reciprocate the honour.
Modi said it was a great privilege to have First Lady Kim as the guest of honor at India’s largest Diwali festival and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Queen Huh Memorial Park in Ayodhya.
Expressing the hope that the First Lady would come to feel at ease in Queen Huh’s homeland and regard the country as her home as well, Prime Minister Modi added he and all Indians greatly welcomed the First Lady.
The First Lady said, “President Moon sent the Korean Minister of Culture to celebrate the groundbreaking ceremony for the Queen Huh Memorial Park in Ayodhya. And I am able to take part in the Diwali festival as its guest of honor. Thanks to such special considerations by the two leaders, it has become possible for the close ties between the two countries, which had started through the love between King Suro and Queen Huh Hwang-ok 2,000 years ago, to evolve into the partnership of today. President Moon hopes that his New Southern Policy and Prime Minister Modi’s Look East Policy will be able to create great synergy in forward-looking cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, sports, and culture, thereby making significant contributions to progress in Asia. I also want to work together with you.”
Prime Minister Modi said he believed that the Queen Huh Memorial Park was a testament to the restoration of 2,000 years of bilateral ties, adding that it would also show the world the two nations’ deep relations and demonstrate their continuity to the next generation.
The Prime Minister said he hoped that the First Lady’s visit would greatly inspire the younger generations in both countries to usher in a future together.
Prime Minister Modi went on to say that he was very grateful to President Moon for showing his determination to advance bilateral relations and for congratulating the Prime Minister on winning the 2018 Seoul Peace Prize in the personal letter he sent.
The Prime Minister added that a picture of President Moon wearing the “Modi jacket,” which he had sent him, had been posted on a social networking site, sparking huge public interest in India.
Expressing his sincere gratitude, Prime Minister Modi said that although the leaders had met only recently, he felt that President Moon was a genuine friend and partner with whom he could share a sense of closeness as if old friends.
Asking First Lady Kim to give his regards to President Moon, the Prime Minister said he hoped to visit Korea at the earliest possible date.
