Official visit from South Korea

Mr President,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me, Mr President, to welcome you back to Norway and to The Royal Palace. We all remember with warm feelings your visit last year when you received the Nobel Peace Prize for your efforts in the cause of peace.

For many years you have striven for democracy in your country. Your endeavours have many parallels to the efforts of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. You have both experienced many years of persecution, assassination attempts, imprisonment and harassment and have not allowed yourselves to be defeated. You have both demonstrated eminent statesmanship, and you have both spoken with moral authority that have made profound impressions.

As for you, Mr President, you have devoted your entire life to combating the dictatorship in Korea. When you were elected president in 1997, it was the first time an opposition party had come to power in the Republic of Korea by peaceful means. This was a real breakthrough and a victory for democracy, of which you can be proud.

Your efforts to promote peaceful reunification with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have been just as long-term and determined. It was particularly due to the foundation you laid through your confidence-building efforts that the historic summit in Pyongyang came about in June last year. This event gives reason to hope that a lasting reconciliation and reunification process has now begun in earnest.

Mr. President, I am happy to say that our bilateral relations are constantly growing deeper and better. Our two countries share the same views on several important global questions. Next month the Norwegian Prime Minister will visit your country. This will be the first official visit of a Norwegian Prime Minister to the Republic of Korea, and as such it will form another milestone in our bilateral relations.

When receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo some 8 years ago, Nelson Mandela said: “Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates. Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war”.

Mr. President, you were the first Nobel Peace Prize winner in a new millennium. It is our hope that the qualities and values that you represent will give inspiration to create a world that highlights human dignity and peace, in accordance with the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and numerous other Peace Prize laureates.

In conclusion, I would like to propose a toast to you, Mr. President, wishing you good health and every success in your important future work.

Gun Bei! - Skål!