U.N. Korean ambassador visits campus

As an honorary guest of UVSC, Kim Hyun-Chung visited campus on May 18-23.

He addressed a classroom of UVSC students on his second day on campus and spoke on the topic of "Globalization and Korea".

He spoke of South Korea’s economic history by comparing their status in 1960 with $80 per capita income which was in par with Ghana and Bolivia. Their situation was so bad that Cambodia and Philippines provided aid. Today, it is $20,400 per capita income and has Free Trade Agreements with 45 countries, which is the most any country has implemented.

"We are the only country that went to military dictatorship to democracy," Kim explained that what they need to do next is unification with North Korea. He also remarked that reforming a civilization is hard because you have to break norms and people would rather maintain the status quo.

He also said they now have more obligations to support developing countries. "What we need are investments to create jobs. That’s what these developing countries need to focus on."

Kim also talked about they relationship between the U.S. and South Korea; he said that the U.S. is their most important country they trade with. He said trade has strengthened their alliance and that they have been with the U.S. in all major wars such as Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

A discussion was opened to the students to ask him questions. From there, topics were discussed such as the strict Intellectual Property Rights in South Korea, the U.N.’s role in reunification, refugees and the rise of gas prices.