Pres. Park meets Chinese premier and Japanese PM in Seoul

Pres. Park meets Chinese premier and Japanese PM in Seoul. November. 02, 2015 08:23. mhpark@donga.com.

President Park Geun-hye chose National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul branch) to have a banquet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China’s Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday. The former site where the Defense Security Command of Korea was located, the museum is the cradle of Korean art. It was also to give the two leaders respectful treatment and to deliver a future-oriented message of “cooperation and partnership.”

The other factor is that there is no place at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae where an official banquet can practically be held. The only place where a multilateral meeting of more than three nations can be held at Cheong Wa Dae is a two-story building of Yeongbingwan, the state guest house. This time, the first floor was used as a photo zone where the three leaders pose for a photo shoot and the second floor as a conference room, another venue was required for joint press conference and banquet.

For this reason, Chunchugwan where President Park usually has press conference was transformed to a place for joint press conference this time, and the venue for the banquet has to be chosen from outside the presidential office. Given the distance from Cheong Wa Dae and the features of banquet, the museum, some 200 meters away from Chunchugwan, was chosen.

In July 2005 when Chinese President Xi Jinping made his state visit to Korea, President Park had a “special luncheon” with him at Korea Furniture Museum in Seoul. During the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, then First Lady Kim Yun-ok held a banquet at National Museum of Korea where she met first ladies of participating countries.