S. Korean diplomat pledges to build closer ties with Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The newly designated ambassador of South Korea to Cambodia Kim Han-soo pledged Monday to intensify bilateral cooperation with Cambodia in all fields.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong (R) shakes hand with Mr. Kim Han-soo 

The commitment was made during a meeting with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.

Kim also hailed Cambodia for its rapid economic and social development in the last decade, saying in his diplomatic mission, he would help increase development assistance to Cambodia and would boost stronger ties in trade and investment.

Meanwhile, Hor Namhong said that bilateral ties this year will be closer because, in July alone, the South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will visit Cambodia three times -- to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, join the East Asian Foreign Ministers Forum, and for the Mekong-South Korea meeting.

The two sides also exchanged ideas on the Korean peninsula issue and agreed that the issue should be settled peacefully for regional stability and added that the six-party talks should be resumed as soon as possible.

South Korea is one of Cambodia's leading trading partners and investors.

The bilateral trade volume reached 538 million U.S. dollars last year, up 43 percent year-on-year, according to the statistics of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in Phnom Penh.

Of the figures, Cambodia's exports to South Korea rose by 101 percent to 87.3 million U.S. dollars last year and the country's imports from South Korea increased by 35 percent to 450.7 million U.S. dollars, it said.

On the investment side, South Korea is the second largest investor in Cambodia after China, with promised investments of 4. 04 billion U.S. dollars since 1994 to 2011, according to a report of the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

South Korea is also a key lender to Cambodia for infrastructure and irrigation system development. As of last year, the country has provided 341 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia.

Editor: Liu