SEOUL, 11 March 2015 – Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Raul S. Hernandez called on Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa on Tuesday, 10 March 2015 as part of a series of meetings on top Korean government officials to bolster bilateral relations.

Ambassador Hernandez expressed gratitude to Speaker Chung for making time for the meeting, adding that it reflects the high regard leading Korean officials have toward the Philippines as a “brother nation”.

Preceded only by President Park Geun-hye in terms of seniority, Assemblyman Chung will soon be making his first visit to the Philippines as speaker of Korea’s 300-seat unicameral parliament, a position he assumed at the start of the 19th National Assembly on 30 May 2014.

During the 40-minute call, Ambassador Hernandez and Speaker Chung discussed several topics crucial to Philippine-Korea relations, such political and security cooperation, Korea’s deployment of troops to help rehabilitate and reconstruct areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan, Filipino marriage migrants, the safety of Koreans in the Philippines, and regional issues.

Referring to the Philippines’ own help to Korea at its hour of need during the Korean War (1950-1953), Speaker Chung joked that the yearlong deployment of the Republic of Korea Military Joint Support Group, more popularly known as the Araw Contingent, to Leyte until December 2014 was Korea’s attempt to repay its debt to the Filipino people, “with interest”.

Speaker Chung, who has represented two Busan districts through five terms in the National Assembly since 1996, is expected to call on senior officials of the government of the Philippines, including Senate President Franklin M. Drilon and House of Representatives Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr. during the visit to the Philippines expected this month.

Ambassador Hernandez called the visit of Speaker Chung “timely” as the Philippines and Korea just marked earlier this month the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations on 3 March 1949.