TOKYO: South Korea’s new ambassador to Japan, Park Cheol-hee, on Friday expressed readiness to work to create unshakable ties between the two countries.

Park, speaking to reporters at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, said that his mission is to create bilateral relations that will not backtrack by taking advantage of the momentum for better ties built under South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The new ambassador said he will accelerate cooperation between the two countries, which is expanding and deepening not only on a bilateral level but also on regional and global levels.

Park, the second South Korean ambassador to Japan named under the Yoon administration, assumed his ambassadorial duties on Friday.

The ambassador said next year’s 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea offers a great opportunity to upgrade the two countries’ ties and open a new future.

He said he will find and promote various projects that will enable people from both countries to experience better ties and realize more mature relations.

Park, a scholar well versed in Japanese politics and fluent speaker of Japanese, played a key role in formulating Yoon’s Japan policy for his presidential election campaign.

Before being named ambassador to Japan, he served in such posts as director of Seoul National University’s Institute for Japanese Studies, chair of the South Korean academic society on modern Japan, and head of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

JIJI Press