Tag: North Korea

Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech to the Society of British Aerospace Companies, held in Seoul on Tuesday 5th March 1996.

PRIME MINISTER:

The British Ambassador has a very compelling way of encouraging you to speak to audiences, he just announces that you are about to do so. But happily on this occasion I have no inhibition about that, not least because although this is my first visit to Korea I found it an enormously entertaining and worthwhile day and I look forward to coming back again.

I came here today essentially to follow-up the meeting that I had with President Kim Young-Sam in London just a year or so ago. When we met then, we identified the opportunity for a much enhanced trade and investment relationship between our two countries, and between Korea and the rest of the European Union, and we proposed some ways to expand that trade. We wanted to take stock of what we had agreed a year or so ago.

We had of course met just a day or two earlier at the Europe-Asia summit where, amongst other things, it was agreed that Britain would host the next summit and the Republic of Korea would host the third summit.

When the President and I met a year or so ago, we agreed that we should try and increase the economic relationship between our two countries. Since then British exports to Korea have increased by about 45 percent, and Korean exports to the United Kingdom by 61 percent, and our two-way trade has increased very dramatically.

You can find the same sort of relationship in the interchange of investment, British in Korea and Korean in Britain. Indeed Britain now takes 40 percent of Korean investment across Europe, whilst Britain in turn is Asia’s largest single investor. So I think there is a very firm basis for our two countries on which to build.

One of the changes that we are seeing around the world at the moment is I think an increased understanding across the world of the very remarkable changes that are happening in Asia, not least of course in Korea. The economic growth, the economic enthusiasm of what is happening in this part of the world is remarkable by any yardstick.

I have no doubt that the growth of trade between Europe and Korea, between my country and Korea, are bound to increase. We have signed a whole series of agreements to directly cooperate in a number of sectors, and as a result of that that is bringing a lot of British trade missions here to Korea and vice versa.

This reception marks the work of one of those trade missions – the Society of British Aerospace Companies. The aerospace industry is a key industry around the world, a key industry for Britain, and we are delighted to be working so closely with Korea as far as it is concerned. Certainly intensive cooperation is already under way. British and Korean companies are already working closely together on Korea Satellites, through the sales of Airbus aircraft, Rolls-Royce engines, Lynx helicopters, and I think that track record speaks for itself.

I look forward to going back home on some future occasion in an airbus frame, a Rolls-Royce engine, with a Lynx helicopter in pursuit just in case I need it when stopping en route. Though if I do that I will have some explaining to do to British Airways.

Let me just say that contacts between our countries of course are not just confined to business and governments. I think that contacts between the whole of Europe and the whole of Asia are becoming increasingly important.

So, of course, are contacts between people. There has been a very rapid growth in the contacts between Europe as a whole, the United Kingdom specifically, and Korea over recent years. We have, for example, an increase of Korean students in the United Kingdom of 20 percent last year and 20 percent the year before. I am also told that the United Kingdom is the top destination in Europe for Korean tourists and that none of them come to watch our cricket team, which I personally find astonishing.

We have, I think, complementary strengths – Europe, Britain, Korea. The partnership that may have seemed just a distant dream to many people a few years ago is becoming daily an increasing commercial, industrial, political and social reality. I am delighted that is the case, and delighted for the somewhat unexpected and impromptu opportunity that the British Ambassador has given me to say so. I am not sure what his next posting will be, but I will give it careful consideration. If he really behaves, I will leave him in Korea.

Thank you for being here.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech to the Executive Board of the Federation of Korean Industry in Seoul on Tuesday 5th March 1996.

PRIME MINISTER:

Let me first thank Chairman Chey for his very warm welcome and I am delighted to be here with you on this occasion. I would also like, at the outset, to pay my tribute to the Federation of Korean Industry for their work in promoting closer business ties with the United Kingdom.

We have only a short time together today, so I want to concentrate on some of the things that I think are important to both of us and leave plenty of time for a more relaxed exchange around the table.

We have seen a truly enormous increase in economic ties since the President’s visit to the United Kingdom last year. Exports to Korea are up by very nearly 50 percent; Korean exports to the United Kingdom are up by over 60 percent; and two-way trade has exceeded 5 billion US dollars for the first time.

We have seen similarly exciting events on the investment front. In October last year Her Majesty The Queen opened the new Samsung electronics complex in North-East England; LG have opened a major new electronics plant; Daewoo have doubled the capacity of their video recorder plant in Northern Ireland; Halla will perform ground-breaking ceremony for a new factory in Wales just next week.

Britain is one of the great overseas investors of history, and so we understand the logic of overseas investors, our investments abroad, and investments from abroad into the United Kingdom. Our industry is very ready to globalise its efforts and establish bases abroad. We are the world’s largest overseas investor after the United States, and of course the largest European investor in Asia, Just within the last few minutes I have witnessed the signature of a GKN/Hanwha agreement for a 30 million dollars joint venture here in Korea.

Let me say also how much we welcome the Korean investment we have had in the UK. We are always a welcome home for inward investment. We have received by far the largest share of world investment into the European Union and I very warmly welcome this. We had three further announcements today: Fine Electromechanics, Sung Kwang Electromechanics and Poong Geon – all setting up to supply existing Korean investment in the UK. In this particular occasion the existing Korean investment is that made by Samsung.

These investments are going to take the number of Korean companies who have chosen the UK as a manufacturing base to 19.

But that is what has happened already. What I would like to dwell upon for a few moments is what awaits Korean companies in the United Kingdom. Well firstly a very warm welcome from the government. We treat Korean companies which have set up in the United Kingdom as though they were British companies formed with indigenous British capital. The United Kingdom economy is now entering its fifth year of sound and stable economic growth. The economic fundamentals are in place to ensure an environment in which companies can flourish.

Let me try and illustrate that for you. Manufacturing labour costs – critical to any investor – are much lower in the United Kingdom than in the United States, in Japan or in any of the other major European countries. And so are our non-labour costs far lower than those of our European competitors. Inflation is under firmer lock and key than we have known in the United Kingdom for getting on for half a century. It has been below 4 percent for over 3 years, it is now below 3 percent and continues to fall. Productivity in manufacturing industry since 1980 has increased more rapidly than in any other member of the OECD, and to take a European example, twice as rapidly as in Germany. And unemployment, too high at just under 8 percent, is still at its lowest rate since 1991 and very far below the average of other European nations. Our economic growth in the current year will be higher, for example, than Germany’s for the fourth successive year.

I emphasise these points to try and indicate to you some of the fundamental changes that have taken place in the British economy. It has not happened suddenly, it has not happened overnight. Economic success takes time and commitment. And the core of what we believe in is our belief in free markets in the United Kingdom.

Competition both at home and abroad sharpens incentives, it focuses business on what business does best, and that is creating wealth.

We believe that deregulation, removing unnecessary government controls is central to competitiveness. We have sought out some of the unnecessary regulations which raise prices, destroy jobs, stifle innovation and end choice. We have identified over 1,000 of those regulations and half of them have already either been repealed or amended, and we are on our way to dealing with the other half.

The key target of deregulation has been the labour market. The reforms we have undertaken in the last 16 years have created a flexible, an efficient and competitive labour force, as those of you in the United Kingdom will already know. Industrial disputes are very much a thing of the past. The number of days lost last year in the United Kingdom in industrial disputes fell to the lowest level we have known for over 100 years.

One policy perhaps, above all, encapsulates our belief in free markets, and that is the policy of privatisation, pioneered in the United Kingdom and a policy upon which we now have more experience I think than any nation in the world. We have privatised, put back into private ownership, 48 major industries, transferring nearly a million people from the public to the private sector, increasing efficiency and improving services to the customer. And where we have led on privatisation, many people have followed right around the world.

Loss-making monopolies have been transformed these days into world-class companies. Let me give you an illustration or two. British Airways is now the most profitable international airline in the world and I am delighted that from next month it will fly three times a week directly from Seoul to London. Following privatisation British Telecom has also been transformed. The number of lines has increased by 30 percent. Competition in the UK has led to the development of a domestic mobile telephone market that is now twice that of any other European country. And the UK is the only European Union country with a competitive telecoms network and with costs the lowest in Europe.

They are two examples. I could certainly have given you more. But the competitive cost base and open and deregulated business environment has meant that companies manufacturing in the UK – whether Korean owned or British owned – have been remarkably successful in winning export orders in Europe. And since one of the main objectives of most Korean companies investing in the UK is to be closer to their European customers as well as their British customers, it seems to me the case for coming to the UK is compelling.

Let me touch on some of the other things that we have sought to provide because we believe that they are important for the future: an educated and highly motivated workforce; the City of London, perhaps, not perhaps, certainly, the world’s most flexible and sophisticated financial services market; competitive utilities with substantial cost benefits for industry; an increasingly highly developed science and technology base; a transport infrastructure that has global links; and of course English which, to our great good fortune, is becoming the language of international business.

We British are irrevocably part of Europe. We have a very strong self-interest in seeing the European Union develop as a prosperous entity. The single market, crucial to companies dealing with Europe, was a UK priority, was a UK invention, was pushed through with UK political muscle.

The benefits I think to business of that are increasingly clear – harmonised standards, quicker movement of goods with less frontier bureaucracy, the opening up of the financial services market and freeing public procurement from national restrictions so that governments could and should pick the most efficient company offering them services rather than simply pick a national leader in that particular area.

These gains, which are in my judgement an essential element of enhanced competitiveness, are equally open to Korean companies investing in the UK.

There is one area of very sharp difference between the United Kingdom and its other European partners. We have not accepted what is known as the European Union Social Chapter. And we have not accepted it because it would introduce new regulations and new restrictions into labour relations. It would make companies less efficient and that is not the right way to proceed. In the UK we are determined to maintain labour force flexibility, and our refusal to join the Social Chapter – a refusal which we shall maintain in the years ahead – provides significant competitive advantage over those countries that are burdening themselves with unnecessary costs that make them anti-competitive.

The end result, what we are aiming for in the United Kingdom, is a full-scale, properly functioning, enterprise economy. I have made it clear that I want Britain to be the enterprise centre of Europe. Combined with the evident strengths of Korea’s economy and industry, I think that together we are able to increase the prosperity of both our peoples. I think there is much fertile ground for further trade and investment expansion and I look forward to continuing to work, whenever it is practicable and whenever it is possible, with Korean companies with European interests, and in particular with British interests. You would be very welcome, you would be very welcome in Europe, and I am delighted to have had this opportunity of speaking to you this afternoon.

What I would like to do for the rest of the time is try and respond to any questions and thoughts that you may have, so that we might understand one another even better about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Thank you for being here this afternoon.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint press conference with the Korean President, Mr Kim Young-Sam, in Seoul on Tuesday 5th March 1996.

MR KIM YOUNG-SAM:

Along with all the people of the Republic of Korea, I whole-heartedly welcome Prime Minister John Major, who is honouring us with his first visit to our country. Prime Minister Major and I have sought to develop relations between Korea and the United Kingdom into a practical partnership by holding official talks no less than 3 times in the past year. I believe that Prime Minister Major’s current visit to our country will provide the catalyst for raising the level of our friendly cooperative relationship still higher.

At today’s meeting we have exchanged constructive opinions on the situation on the Korean Peninsular, including developments in Northern Korea, and discussed ways to-strengthen practical bilateral cooperation. We have agreed that peace and stability on the Korean Peninsular are very important for the peace, not only for the Asia Pacific Region, but also of the world. We have also agreed that inter-Korean issues should be resolved through dialogue between South and North Korea themselves with the understanding and cooperation of the nations surrounding the Peninsular.

Prime Minister Major has also assured us that the United Kingdom will consult closely with us, including the matter of British direct participation in the KEDO process and for the settlement of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsular. We have noted with satisfaction that the plans for industrial and technological cooperation, that we agreed upon when I visited Britain in March last year, are being carried out smoothly. We have agreed to further develop our bilateral relations through practical cooperation in the economic and trade sectors and active exchanges of personnel. In particular we have decided to further strengthen our friendly ties by holding those cultural events in each other’s country and expanding cultural exchanges in 1997, next year, which happens to be the 200th anniversary of the first contact between our two countries. We have also agreed to closely consult with each other in international arenas, including the United Nations where we are both members of the Security Council.

In addition, we have decided that the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea would also help each other in our common efforts to lead partnership between Asia and Europe as the host of the second and third Asia-Europe meeting respectively. We have agreed to establish a joint working committee between Korea and the UK to successfully prepare for this ASEM meeting.

The Prime Minister and I agreed that cooperation between the UK and the Republic of Korea could become the driving force, not only for the development of both our countries, but also for the prosperity of the rest of the world in the 21st century.

I am firmly convinced that Prime Minister Major’s visit has provided an important opportunity to strengthen our mutually complementary partnership and create a more mature relationship.

PRIME MINISTER:

Mr President, thank you. Let me just say a few further words about our discussions this morning. This may be my first visit to the Republic of Korea, but I seem to be meeting a good friend, for we have met on a number of occasions in the last 12 months or so. This morning I have met the leaders of government, later on today I shall meet the leaders of industry.

I will not reiterate all the points made by the President except to agree with what he had to say. But there are one or two things I think it would be useful to add. In recent years the cooperation in trade, in commerce and in politics between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea has grown dramatically. This is reflected most evidently in the eyes of most people by the degree of trade between Korea and the United Kingdom, and the degree of investment by the United Kingdom in Korea, and by Korea in the United Kingdom. The growth is impressive. Nearly a 60 percent increase in bilateral trade to over 5 billion dollars in the past year. There have been 8 announcements of new Korean investments in the United Kingdom, including 3 more to be announced later today. There has been a 27 percent increase in visitors between the two countries. The number of Korean students attending British universities has risen by over 20 percent in each of the last 2 years. And there has been tremendous progress under the industrial cooperation arrangement and in collaboration on science and technology matters.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, This cooperation has extended to political and diplomatic matters as well. The President mentioned the ASEM summit, cooperation over KEDO and the United Nations, other examples could be given. I was very pleased to welcome the President to the United Kingdom last year and I am delighted to be able to visit Korea on this occasion.

I would just end with one final thought. It is true that the relationship in all aspects has grown tremendously in the past few years, but it is the President’s belief, and it is my belief, that it will grow even more in the years that lie ahead. And our meeting today is a further staging post upon that improvement. And the President and I look forward to continuing our discussion over luncheon shortly.

QUESTION:

I would like to ask a question to Prime Minister John Major with regard to British policy towards North Korea. We understand that right now several British companies are making joint investment into North Korea, including in the banking sector, and that the North Korean side it seems is interested in entering into some economic relationship with Britain. I would like to know what is the current British government’s policy and prospects with regard towards North Korea? And the other question is on British support of Korea bidding for the 2000 World Cup. We all know that Britain is a strong country with a strong tradition in the football game and it would be very nice if Britain could lend support to our bidding effort and what is your own opinion?

PRIME MINISTER:

Let me take the two points separately. On North Korea, I think the importance that we give to ensuring that the present government in North Korea behaves properly, was indicated very clearly by our support for KEDO. We were the first of the Europeans to provide positive cash support with KEDO to deal with the problems of the nuclear industry in the north. That was a matter of critical support to the Republic of Korea, we were the first of the Europeans to provide that support and have been encouraging our European partners to provide further support, and that has now been done at the communal expense of all the European countries. So we are very keen to ensure that North Korea is brought, as far as is practicable, into understanding that it must have a civilised relationship with the rest of the world, and in particular a civilised relationship with the Republic of Korea.

On the second point, in lighter moments of my discussion with the President, and also with the Prime Minister earlier this morning, we speculated upon the possibility of a Korea/England World Cup Final. The only point of disagreement between us was who might win the World Cup Final. This is a further matter that may continue over luncheon. As to the site for the finals, as you will know, that decision has to be made by FIFA and the representatives of FIFA are independent in their decision. But we do understand very carefully how important this is for Korea and we wish you well, and we will continue to wish you well until the World Cup Final, if indeed the United Kingdom or any of its teams – England perhaps – were to be there against Korea. And I look forward to watching it.

QUESTION AND ANSWERS

QUESTION (Mike Brunson, ITN):

Mr President, can you say why you think it is that your businessmen apparently prefer to invest in Britain rather than in say France or Germany or any other country in the rest of the European Union?

MR KIM YOUNG-SAM:

Well Korea has had this long relationship with Britain. As I mentioned, it has been about 200 years already since the first contact between the two countries. We Koreans do have a very favourable image of Britain, we have a very positive view of the country, so it is not a sudden relationship. The English-speaking environment is also a very favourable condition for Koreans to operate. And most importantly we do trust what the British side says through contracts and agreements and we have maintained an excellent partnership in all areas of our cooperation. On the government level there have been many Ministerial, Ambassadorial contacts and cooperation and the development of dialogue between our two countries has been excellent. From the business view-point, the domestic environment for investment in Britain is of course very favourable to Korean investors. So there is no question that the speed of the developing partnership between the two Koreas will increase in the future. We have already seen more than a 60 percent increase in the two-way trade between our two countries and the amount last year of the trade was more than 5 billion US dollars, more exactly 5.2 billion US dollars, last year. So we are very satisfied with the overall development between Korea and Britain.